The Law Offices of Kathleen Colton, Ltd.
Criminal Defense / P.O. Box 1364 / St. Charles, IL 60174
Phone installer acquitted of groping
Chicago Tribune June 6, 2007
A telephone line installer for Comcast was acquitted Tuesday of charges that he groped a Geneva woman on a service call in her apartment last year. A Kane County jury deliberated about two hours before finding Gustavo Cardenas, 22, of Bridgeview not guilty of two counts of criminal sexual abuse, a felony punishable by up to 3 years in prison. "I'm free!" a jubilant Cardenas exclaimed outside the St. Charles courtroom of Judge William Weir, who presided over the two-day trial.
Cardenas, who works for a subcontractor for Comcast, had been charged following a June 3, 2006, incident at the woman's apartment, where he had gone to install a telephone line. The woman, 26, claimed Cardenas forcibly put his mouth on her breast and fondled her. Defense attorney Kathleen Colton cited inconsistencies in the woman's account, including telling authorities that Cardenas spent nearly two hours in her apartment, but also testifying that it only took him 30 minutes to install the line before the alleged abuse, which she said lasted about seven minutes. "It seems to me that the jury had a right to wonder about that hour and a half," Colton said. Kane County Assistant State's Atty. Greg Sams argued that saliva collected from the woman's body that matched Cardenas proved her account. "This really is a simple case: He said, she said, and the DNA confirms what she said," Sams told the jury in closing arguments.
