Can I Be Arrested for Sexual Assault Without Evidence in Illinois? Facing sexual assault charges in the state of Illinois? In this video, Combs Waterkotte attorneys Joshua Boardman and Andrew Russek discuss whether or not you can be arrested for sexual assault in Illinois without evidence.
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Interview Transcript
Scott Michael Dunn: Can I be arrested for sexual assault without any evidence?
Joshua Boardman: Let’s step back and think about what evidence in a sexual assault case is. It would be the statements by the alleged victim. So if that alleged victim goes in and speaks with law enforcement and they take down a report, and that is then given to the state’s attorney, the state’s attorney can absolutely file a charge for sexual assault simply based on the testimony of the alleged victim. And, once a charge is filed, you can be arrested.
Dunn: So it’s important to understand what evidence means in a sexual assault case?
Boardman: Correct. And in some of these cases there is no DNA evidence, there’s no evidence beyond the witness statements.
Andrew Russek: That’s what happens sometimes in these sex crimes. You have an individual say something was rape or some kind of sexual assault, you go in without an attorney thinking, well, I’ll admit to being at the party or I’ll admit to having had sex with her but it wasn’t forceful or it didn’t happen at all. Well, you’ve just again given them half of the case. By admitting to having sex, now that witness’s testimony seems a little more believable and then the case becomes, well, we just have to show a jury someday that is was forceable. Or you admit to being at the party where she’s claiming she was assaulted. So that’s why you need to know what your statements, even if they seem benign, may do in a wider scale of a criminal investigation.
