| On December 26, 2016, 35-year-old Angela Rush called Chicago police to report that her estranged husband, 35-year-old Darnell Williams, had physically assaulted her after she complained about his drinking during his visit to her home.
Williams, a military veteran, was arrested two days later, on December 28, and charged with misdemeanor domestic violence.
In January 2017, Williams went to trial in Cook County Circuit Court. He chose to have Judge Yolande Bourgeois decide the case without a jury.
Rush testified that she and Williams had been married for five years, that he was the father of the three youngest of her nine children, and that they had not lived together since 2013.
She was allowed to testify about three prior incidents of Williams’s alleged abuse. She said that in January 2013, they argued because he wanted to drive her car although he did not have a driver’s license. She claimed he hit her with his fists, and when she told him to leave, he pulled out what she thought was a gun. After police arrived, she learned it was a BB gun. In that instance, Rush chose not to press charges.
She said that three months later, on April 16, 2013, Williams punched her, giving her two black eyes, after she told him to get out of the house because he was drunk. She claimed that he banged her head into a windowsill, causing a gash on her head, and that her six-month-old son was thrown to the floor, causing a bruise on his face. Rush had called police but did not press charges.
A year later, on April 26, 2014, Rush said that Williams, who was no longer living with her, hit her in the abdomen with a broom during an argument. Rush was eight months pregnant at the time, and her daughter was born healthy. In that instance, Rush pressed charges. Williams had pled guilty to misdemeanor domestic violence and was sentenced to probation.
Rush said that after that incident, she and Williams tried to patch up their relationship. She said they remarried in September 2016. That “failed completely,” she said.
She testified that on December 26, 2016, she invited Williams to visit their children. Around 9:30 p.m., she said she confronted Williams about drinking in front of the children. An argument ensued. Rush, who was 5 feet 1 inch tall, said that when she told Williams, who was 6 feet 5 inches tall, to leave, he picked her up by the leg and shoulder and slammed her to the floor. She said he knelt on her torso and began punching her in the side.
Rush said that some of her children came in and tried to get Williams to back off. When one of the children called 911, Williams went to the basement and then left.
Rush identified photographs that she said her 10-year-old son had taken, and that showed the bruises she sustained during the incident.
During cross-examination, Rush admitted that during the April 2013 incident, she stabbed Williams in the thigh. When asked by Williams’s defense lawyer whether she told the responding police officers that her children had tried to pull Williams off of her, Rush said, “Well, they didn’t – didn’t get into detail as – like that. They just basically took a brief description of what happened pretty much.”
When asked whether she told police that Williams had pinned her down with his knee, she said that “it never got that far into the conversation.” She said she had declined medical attention, but that was because she didn’t want to leave the children home alone. She denied telling the police that she was not injured. She said she told the police she was “just a little sore.” She said the photographs were taken the day after the incident.
David D., Rush’s 14-year-old son, testified that he was in an upstairs bedroom playing video games with two of his sisters when he heard a loud bang. He said he went downstairs and saw Williams bending down and punching Rush. He said he and his 15-year-old sister, Dasha D., started hitting Williams, but stopped when Williams drew back his fist as if to strike them.
Dasha testified that she ran downstairs with David and other siblings. She said she saw Rush on the floor with Williams “on top of her,” punching her in the side. She also testified that when she and David began hitting Williams, they stopped when he held up his fist in a threatening way. Dasha said she called 911. Williams went downstairs and left before the police arrived.
The defense called Chicago police officer Sophia Velazquez, who testified that she and her partner responded to the call. She said she did not speak to any of the children. Velazquez said that Rush did not tell her that Williams held her down with a knee and punched her, or that the children had tried to intervene. Velazquez said she did not see any physical injuries to Rush’s body. “I offered her to call an ambulance,” Velazquez said. “And she said she didn’t need an ambulance.”
“She said that she was slammed on the ground,” Velazquez said. “I said, ‘Okay, well, ma’am, do need [paramedics]?’ She goes, ‘Well, I mean, I’m a little banged up. But I’m good. I don’t need [paramedics]?’”
Menard McCorkle testified that he and Williams lived in the same apartment building, about two or three blocks from Rush’s home. He said that Williams came to his apartment around 9 p.m., which he remembered because the news had just come on television. McCorkle said that Williams did not smell of alcohol or appear to have been drinking. He said he and Williams watched television until after midnight.
During cross-examination, McCorkle said he remembered the night because Williams was arrested the following morning. When the prosecutor noted that Williams had been arrested two days after the incident, McCorkle said he “really not sure what the exact date…that he came over to my house.”
Williams testified and denied that he had engaged in any physical violence. He said that on the day of the incident, he had spent most of the day putting the living and dining rooms back in order because the floors had been repainted. He denied drinking alcohol at all that day. At 8 p.m., when he took a break and sat down, Rush came out of her bedroom and became upset because he was not working. A quarrel ensued, during which they yelled at each other. He denied it escalated into physical violence. He said he picked up his coat and said he was leaving. As he was heading out the back door, he heard Rush call him an expletive, followed by “that’s why you going to jail.”
Williams said he saw David and Dasha come downstairs, but denied any altercation with them. He said that after he left, he took a bus to McCorkle’s apartment, arriving around 9 or 9:30 p.m. when McCorkle was watching the news.
Williams testified that on December 28, 2016, he went to the domestic violence courthouse to see if a warrant had been issued for his arrest because Rush had “done it before.” He said he spoke to the clerk’s office and asked for his name to be checked. He said he was told there were no warrants. But as he left the courthouse, he saw Rush arrive. Williams said he waited to see what would happen. He was arrested within 20 minutes.
During cross-examination, Williams admitted that he and Rush argued frequently, but denied they physically fought. Asked by the prosecutor if there was violence in the home, Williams said, “Not physical violence; verbal violence, correct.”
On January 17, 2017, after closing arguments, Judge Bourgeois convicted Williams of misdemeanor domestic battery. She said that his and McCorkle’s account was a “fabrication.” Judge Bourgeois also criticized Williams’s claim that he and Rush didn’t have any violent encounters. “Then why’d you plead guilty on April 26 [2014]…to hit[ting] her about the body with a stick?” the judge asked. “You pled guilty to that. And then, you want to testify there’s never been any physical altercations….Your testimony was totally incredible.”
Judge Bourgeois said that the testimony of Rush and the two children was clear, consistent and credible.
Immediately after finding Williams guilty, Judge Bourgeois sentenced him to 18 months of probation and issued a two-year order of protection against him.
Nine days later, Rush filed a motion to dismiss the order of protection. That was denied. Hours later, Rush filed a motion to modify the order of protection. At a hearing on the motion, Rush said she needed the modification because she and the children received housing benefits through Williams because he was a military veteran. She said that she faced loss of the funds because of the order. The modification was denied.
On April 27, 2017, Williams’s attorney, assistant public defender Andrew Wrona, filed an amended motion for a new trial. The motion said that Rush as well as David and Dasha had recanted their testimony. David and Dasha said a cousin had told them to lie. In addition, the photo of Rush’s bruises had been taken on an earlier occasion, they said.
In an affidavit, Rush said that she and Williams “only had an argument & the photo of injury that was used was from a prior incident.” David said he “didn’t witness my stepdad hit my mother. My cousin was one who told me to tell a lie.” Dasha said she “did not see [Williams] hit my mom. My cousin told me them things so my mom would [break up with Williams].” Dasha confirmed that the photo was not from the night of the incident.
While that motion was pending, Rush tried again to dismiss the order of protection, saying she needed Williams’s help with her children, one of whom was ill, and three of whom needed transportation to go to summer school. Rush said she wanted to get counseling and reunite the family. That motion was denied.
Arguments on the motion for a new trial were heard on August 4, 2017. The prosecution objected to hearing from any witnesses until Judge Bourgeois decided whether a hearing was necessary. Wrona said he wanted to present testimony from David, Dasha and Orquenita Donley, the investigator who had accompanied Wrona when they were interviewed.
The judge was opposed. “I am not going to have [an] evidentiary [hearing] for that. I saw those witnesses testify,” she said. “I saw that. Now you are going to want me to substitute my own judgment about their credibility to your investigator?”
The judge noted that she had “already heard from the witnesses’ own mouth[s] what allegedly happened.”
Wrona said he was asking for David and Dasha to testify under oath.
“They testified under oath before,” Judge Bourgeois said. “And they were cross-examined. No, I’m not going to rehear the same evidence. I’m not going to do it.”
“Well, your honor,” Wrona said. “It won’t be the same evidence because they’re going to testify differently than what they did on–“
“No, they’re not,” Judge Bourgeois interrupted. “They had their opportunity. I found them to be credible. If you think otherwise, then you need to appeal…I’m not going to listen. This can go on forever and ever.”
When Wrona asked to make an offer of proof for the record, the judge rebuffed him once more. Ultimately, there was no hearing and the judge denied the motion for a new trial.
On March 20, 2020, the First District Illinois Appellate Court reversed the denial of a hearing. Noting that there was no physical evidence linking Williams to the incident, the court said, “[W]e find that the trial court abused its discretion in denying defendant’s post-trial motion without first holding an evidentiary hearing to consider Rush’s, David’s, and Dasha’s recantations.”
On November 4, 2020, the prosecution filed a motion to vacate the conviction. No hearing was held. The motion was granted, and the prosecution dismissed the charge.
– Maurice Possley
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