deposit when the conditions of bond have been performed and the defendant has
been discharged from all obligations. Because §110-7(f) does not establish a time
limitation for moving for return of the bond, the Appellate Court did not lack
jurisdiction to consider an appeal from denial of a motion to return bond although
the defendant failed to file his motion within 30 days of sentencing.
(Defendant was represented by Assistant Defender Bruce Kirkham, Elgin.)
BATTERY, ASSAULT & STALKING OFFENSES
§7-1(a)(3)
People v. Howard, 2012 IL App (3d) 100925 (No. 3-10-0925, 5/29/12)
To obtain a conviction for domestic battery, the State must prove that the
accused and the victim were family or household members. 720 ILCS 5/12-
3.2(a)(1). Family or household members include persons who have or have had a
dating or engagement relationship. 720 ILCS 5/12-0.1. A dating relationship must
at a minimum be an established relationship with a significant romantic focus.
Both defendant and the victim testified that they were not in a dating
relationship; their relationship was strictly sexual in nature. They had about 15
sexual encounters in the year and a half before the charged incident, and did not
spend much time in each other’s company outside the presence of their group of
friends.
This evidence failed to establish that the defendant and the victim were in
a dating relationship. It was not enough that they had an intimate relationship.
Their relationship was established but not exclusive, and had no romantic focus
or shared expectation of growth. They engaged only in random sexual encounters
that were purely physical.
The Appellate Court reduced defendant’s conviction from aggravated
domestic battery to aggravated battery.
Schmidt, J., dissented. A rational trier of fact could find that there was a
dating relationship from the evidence that defendant and the victim “hung out”
together and had 15 sexual encounters.
(Defendant was represented by Assistant Defender Gabrielle Green, Ottawa.)
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