Posted on 03/04/2006 7:23:49 PM PST by wagglebee
His parents hugged each other in the Bridgeview courtroom as 20-year-old Adrian Missbrenner was acquitted Friday of charges he raped a Naperville girl in an assault captured on videotape during a 2002 party in the family's Burr Ridge home.
But his parents had to wait five hours to share their joy with their son, who late Friday was processed out of Cook County Jail, where he has been detained since last May.
"I want to hug him. I haven't hugged him for nine months,'' his mother, Dobrila Missbrenner, said after leaving the courtroom Friday evening.
She got her wish about 10:30 p.m. when the young Missbrenner walked out of the jail wearing a black leather jacket, jeans and a big smile.
"Now everybody knows what really happened. They made it out to be something it wasn't," Missbrenner said, citing the tape of the alleged assault as a key factor in his acquittal.
The six-man, six-woman jury deliberated for over four hours on Friday before acquitting Missbrenner of criminal sexual assault and child pornography charges. Prosecutors argued the videotape shot during the party showed the 16-year-old girl was too drunk to knowingly consent to having sex with Missbrenner, then 17, and two other men charged with sexually assaulting her.
Family members and Missbrenner's attorneys insisted the 14-minute tape showed the sex was consensual.
"We think justice has finally prevailed,'' Missbrenner's father, Damir Missbrenner, said after the verdict. "We're happy to finally have our son back.''
The verdicts come after Missbrenner fled in 2004 to Serbia while free on bail. He returned voluntarily last May and has been jailed since then.
Jurors left without commenting on their deliberations or the case, which drew national attention, particularly after Judge Kerry M. Kennedy on Tuesday threatened Missbrenner's accuser with contempt charges after she refused to watch the videotape in court.
That warning outraged crime-victim advocates, and Kennedy backed off a day later, ruling that the woman didn't have to watch the tape during her cross-examination by Missbrenner's lawyers.
Missbrenner's family said they believed the tape was critical in winning his acquittal.
"The tape all along showed she was consenting. She was participating,'' Dobrila Missbrenner said, blasting prosecutors for filing criminal charges not only against her son, but against two of his friends who also were accused of assaulting the girl.
One of those men, Christopher Robbins of Brookfield, was acquitted last year of all charges and was in the courtroom Friday when Missbrenner was acquitted. He declined to comment on the verdict.
A third man, Burim Bezeri of Lyons, also was charged with assaulting the girl, but he vanished in September 2004 and is believed to be hiding in eastern Europe. Dobrila Missbrenner said she hopes Bezeri returns to the United States because she believes he also would be acquitted of the charges he faces.
"It's happened two times. It needs to happen one more time,'' Missbrenner said.
While two separate juries have acquitted Missbrenner and Robbins of illegal conduct, a spokesman for Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine defended the decision to file criminal charges against the men.
"This case was brought in good faith based on the evidence we had of a young girl being assaulted,'' said spokesman John Gorman. "We have no second thoughts about bringing this case.''
Mom admits his error
As for Friday's acquittal: "We don't agree with the verdict, but we respect it,'' Gorman said.
Missbrenner's accuser, now 20, wasn't in the courtroom when the verdicts were announced, nor were her mother and two sisters, who had been present earlier in the day for final arguments.
A family attorney, though, called the acquittal "very disappointing.''
"It sends the wrong message (that) when the girl is drunk and unconscious, you may not be held accountable for your actions,'' said attorney George Acosta, who represents the woman in a pending civil suit against Missbrenner.
Striking a note that her son's attorney sounded during his closing arguments, Dobrila Missbrenner acknowledged that her son erred in drinking alcohol and having sex with the teen during the Dec. 7, 2002, party.
"What he did do wrong was to have group sex and drink,'' Missbrenner said of her son. "It's not something I would say is all right.''
Earlier, prosecutors Cheryl Schroeder and Michael Deno urged jurors to convict Missbrenner, saying the tape showed the Naperville girl was so groggy and intoxicated it was impossible for her to consent to sex.
"This defendant and his friends knew [the girl] had no idea what was going on and they took advantage of it,'' Schroeder said. "There is no consent on that tape.''
She reminded jurors that after the sexual activity on the tape ended, the girl was spit on repeatedly and sexual slurs were scrawled on her legs and abdomen with markers. Missbrenner was in the room when that happened, although there was no testimony he took part in those acts.
"They treated her worse than you'd treat a dead dog in the street,'' Schroeder said.
'A moral issue, not a legal issue'
Defense attorney Patrick Campanelli, though, argued that while Missbrenner's actions may have been "morally wrong,'' he never committed a crime and regrets what occurred during the party.
"He regrets every day that night,'' Campanelli said, reminding jurors that Missbrenner was a 17-year-old high school student when the party occurred.
"What happened was an insult, not an assault,'' Campanelli said. "This is a moral issue, not a legal issue.'' Later, though, he argued the girl lied when she testified she was so drunk she couldn't remember engaging in any sexual activity.
As Missbrenner left the courtroom, Judge Kennedy reminded him that he still must successfully complete a three-year term of probation imposed last fall after Missbrenner was convicted of felony bail jumping for fleeing to Serbia.
"You're still on probation to me,'' Kennedy said. "Good luck.''
1) In many states, the age of consent is 16.
2) The boy was 17, so he too was a minor and you have to charge both parties if it was illegal. In most states, consensual sex between a 17 and 16 year old is not illegal.
While I don't disagree with you, I hope that you would also ground the girl until she was 18, and then kick her out of the house if she hadn't by then changed her sorry-ass ways.
Thanks.
It was a gang bang. This defendant was 17. If 5 jr. high kids conspired to shoot videos/photos of each other having sex and sell/trade them, they would still be prosectured for it.
I'm with you .
See my #62. I'd feel the same way, but I'd also ground the girl until she was 18. Then, if she is still a drunk and/or slut, I'd say, "Fine, you're an adult now, there's your bags, bye."
Of course, if you're not a custodial parent, you can't do a whole lot of grounding.
See #66.
I can't begin to guess what Mr. Acosta feels is the right message of personal accountability in a matter such as this.
This is the kind of thing that happens in a civilization where a woman can be acquitted after shooting her husband repeatedly from a sniper perch and killing him. There no longer is "wrong" or "right" in this society. There is only "who has the better story." Anyone who cheered the verdict in that case should keep their mouth shut about this one.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Parents do need to supervise their teens better. They need to do what is right and ignore the advise of amoral "experts" regarding teen sex. I wonder why the parents of the girl are not being held responsible for permitting minors to drink at their house.
Because she wasn't a guy silly. You only lockup men for having sex with drunken partners and when woman place false charges agains the men you're supposed to get outraged when the defense team manages to produce the evidence that shows the accuser is lying. How are we supposed to convict men of rape if they keep being allowed to produce evidence to the contrary ?
If two folks want to engage in lewd and lacivious and downright disgusting acts, and do so with consent, then trying to lockup only the men is a crime.
Justice prevails.
Why wasn't anyone charged with allowing minor's access to alcohol or contributing to the deliquency of minors?
When a man is drunk, why is it that he's responsible for his actions when having sex?
If your drunk, you're still resposible for your actions when you drive a car. If in a case like this, if you're not responsible for what you do when you're already drunk, then you should be responsible for what got you there in the first place.
Pray for our nation.
You're right.. a good beating by a brother or father of the girl.. not sending them to jail.
For those of us that are over 18.
Since they are both currently 20 there is less than a year difference between them. For all we know it could be just a month.
Sounds like to me this girl ought to learn a lesson in self displine herself.
That's nice talk. Hopefully your daughter doesn't get drunk at parties and stay in a place where 3 guys can have sex with her.
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