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.''
Stop it.. with that kind of talk you would think that common sense might actually win out here.
Well, now, I know someone who had this identical thing happen to his daughter. They are good people, and care deeply for their daughter. One of her rapists was the son of a prominent school board member. The rape happened on the board member's property.
They got the girl drunk, and abused her. This was supposed to be a gathering of friends, but it went too far. Also the girl was not in their "clique", and was the reason they thought brought on the abuse. {These kids were from "upstanding" families} They put it on a camera phone, and then on-line. I'll tell you something else,too. When I was a young man, I would have NEVER done such a scum bag thing, regardless, booze or no booze. NOBODY DECENT WOULD HAVE DONE THIS . PERIOD. There is just no excuse.
This is a case I have personal knowledge of. I do not have personal knowledge of the one posted, but it sure sounds like the same M.O. You can defend the rapists all you want, and blame everyone else, I don't care. But I think they were scumbag rapists anyhow, and my opinion sure ain't gonna change, nor is my stance toward these kind of people.
Yeah buddie I'm defending rapists.
There is a key to your maddness though.. you said "They got the girl drunk."
Like they tied her up and made her drink the alcohol.
It just doesn't fly... I'm not saying these guys aren't scumbags.. what I'm saying is that it sounds to me from the article that they don't deserve jail time. I can only imagine these 12 jurors saw it the same way.
Yeah, well drinking shouldn't get you sexually assaulted.
If that's the case, anyone wanting to rape and degrade women should just go the local pub...Fair game because they're all drinking alcohol there...
Think want you want about it, I don't care.
Then why have a conversation with me if you don't care?
But don't imply I like sexually assaulting people or that I'm for others doing it.
You have an opinion.. apparently 12 jurors disagreed with you.. that doesn't make them rapist lovers.
You have your opinion, and I've got mine. I'm not trying to attack anyone, but to lend some perspective..I have personal knowledge of such a situation, and I have no sympathy for any "man" who would do such a cowardly act. I am not sticking up for the girl unjustly, either. There are tramps, trollops, whores, slutbags, and ho's out there who would gladly be a part of such an act, that's for sure.
Not all women are like that, and the girl I know is NOT like that...her life is in shambles; she had to change school districts, and the scum that did this to her walked free as a bird. All because she had a few drinks.
It sickens me.
I'll tell you why they D.A.'s office persisted....they thought no one would ever have to view the tape under the rape shield law. That's why when this story first came out, she was passed out and dragged into the room, and then BRUTALLY raped. Do you honestly think 2 juries would have acquitted these guys if that was the case? After they realized the tape would be viewed, prosecution changed their story to her being too drunk to consent. This was NOT A RAPE, folks. You have to see that at this point. No, the 24 jurors involved in the 2 trials were not dumb or brain-washed, they merely learned the truth. The defendant's family never spoke out to the press, not wanting to publicly bash the girl, and confident that the tape would tell the real story, and it did. Forget what you heard in the news, it was only one side of the story. What WAS wrong was the writing and spitting that went on after she passed out later in the evening. But the defendants were not accused of that. Why? Because two other young men had done it, have already admitted that, and were given COMMUNITY SERVICE several weeks after the incident occured. I don't approve of ANYTHING that went on that night, but it was revealed that the girl told her female friend that she wanted to get laid that night, she told the boys that she could drink them under the table, and it was her hands that put that bottle to her mouth, not the boys'. And if you still believe it was a rape, this will answer it all for you. If you were a woman getting raped, would you smile, moan with pleasure, hug and kiss him, and finally, if the man's sexual organ "fell out", so to speak, would you re-insert it? She did. End of story.
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