Can Consent Be Used as a Defense in Illinois? Combs Waterkotte attorneys Christopher Combs and Joshua Boardman discuss everything you need to know about Illinois sex crime charges, including sexual assault, sexual abuse, rape, and more.
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Interview Transcript
Scott Michael Dunn: Can consent be used as a defense in Illinois?
Joshua Boardman: Absolutely. And you will see that often where, I think Chris has mentioned it, the classic example is maybe a drunken night where there was consent and then the next day there’s not or the claim that consent was withdrawn. You’re going to look at circumstantial evidence. Is there an ongoing romantic relationship? Was there any sort of social media or text messages or pictures or videos that kind of create this context or these circumstances under which consent would be reasonable? Or was there a significant amount of prior consent before that would sort of demonstrate perhaps a discrepancy versus someone claiming that there wasn’t consent. So, it’s a deeply factual analysis based on what the report is, what the allegation is, and how we respond to it.
