A 2021 criminal sexual assault case at the heart of a judge’s current trial with the Illinois Courts Commission was heard on a different matter last week.
Now 19-year old Drew S. Clinton of Taylor, Michigan appeared before Adams County Judge Roger Thomson on February 1st seeking to have his criminal sexual assault case expunged from the public record.
An expungement order directs the court to treat the criminal conviction as if it had never occurred, essentially removing it from a defendant’s criminal record as well as the public record.
Judge Robert Adrian found Clinton guilty of one count of criminal sexual assault during a bench trial on October 15, 2021. However, Adrian changed his mind at Clinton’s sentencing hearing on January 3, 2022, and declared him not guilty. The changing of the conviction and the fallout of events afterward have landed Adrian under investigation by the Judicial Inquiry Board resulting in a possible trial later on this year with the Illinois Courts Commission.
Clinton served 148 days in the Adams County Jail prior to having his conviction overturned during sentencing. The statute under which Clinton was convicted required a minimum four-year sentence in the Department of Corrections, but Adrian refused to impose the sentence, calling the county jail imprisonment for Clinton “plenty of punishment.”
Muddy Rivers News reports that Adams County Assistant State’s Attorney Laura Keck argued last Wednesday that the expungement should be denied on the grounds that if a person is ever charged with a sex offense, the state’s attorney’s office can file a motion to use prior offenses.
According to the report, Judge Thomson agreed with Keck’s argument and denied Clinton’s request for expungement. Clinton, who represented himself in the expungement hearing and presented no arguments last Wednesday, does have a right to appeal. Keck told Muddy River News that appeals on expungement cases are rare and are hardly ever won.