Jury finds ex Geneva doc guilty of criminal sexual assault
Lewis sentencing to be scheduled
By BRENDA SCHORYEmailFollow
Mark G. Lewis was convicted of criminal sexual assault
ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP – A jury convicted former Geneva doctor Mark Lewis of criminal sexual assault Thursday, but not of the more serious charge of aggravated criminal sexual assault causing injury.
The jury went to deliberate after closing statements today in the fourth and last day of Lewis's trial. Criminal sexual assault is a Class 1 felony, punishable by four to 15 years imprisonment and fines up to $25,000. Aggravated criminal sexual assault is a Class X felony, punishable by six to 30 years if convicted.
Lewis is already serving an eight-year sentence after pleading guilty last year to possessing a large amount of marijuana in the basement of his St. Charles home.
In his closing remarks, prosecutor Greg Sams dismissed Lewis's testimony of consensual sex as "from the pages of an adult men's magazine."
"If you believe anything the defendant said, I know I have lost you," Sams told the jury. "That testimony sounded like it was straight from the pages of an adult men's magazine."
Lewis stood trial this week in on charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault and criminal sexual assault relating to an incident after a party at his St. Charles house in the overnight hours of Nov. 16 to Nov. 17, 2012.
The woman had testified that she blacked out and suffered anal pain and bleeding throughout the next day before she went to an emergency room, where a rape kit was done.
Lewis had described a post-party scene where the woman who accused him had flirted with him, embraced him, kissed him on the cheek, whispered in his ear, linked arms with him while sharing a cigarette in the garage, and later agreed to have sex with him.
They had consensual sex on the bedroom floor while his live-in girlfriend slept in their bedroom down the hall, he testified.
But Sams said eyewitness testimony from Lewis's live-in girlfriend from that night was that the victim could not talk, stand up or sit down without assistance and had to be carried up to a bed where she was laid down and then passed out.
Sams said that was evidence that she could not give consent to have anal sex with him, and DNA evidence from anal swabs later proved that.
And evidence of drugs in the woman's urine showed she had Xanax, Demerol and Klonopin in her system – but that she only had Klonopin prescribed for her, Sams said.
Lewis's attorney Ron Dolak, countered that Lewis admitted to having vaginal sex with the woman.
And after he pulled out, "gravity takes over" and the semen – with Lewis's DNA – was on the woman's anal area.
The presence of the DNA evidence, Dolak said, only means there was sex, not that a sexual assault occurred.
"She said she had pain, but there was no proof," Dolak said. "Nothing was inserted into her anus. … There was no proof of bleeding."
Dolak said it was unreasonable to believe the woman when she said her doctor had never warned her about the side effects of her anxiety medication, nor a warning about mixing alcohol with the medication.
"It doesn't make sense," Dolak said.
The victim's testimony was also inconsistent, Dolak said.
"She could not remember. She made up this story," Dolak said. "She has lost her way, as far as truth goes."
Dolak said the woman made her accusations because she saw the large house Lewis lived in and his garage with classic cars and motorcycles in it.
In fact, she sued Lewis civilly in 2013 and he settled for $50,000 and a Pontiac Bonneville.
"She realizes she can get a payday out of this," Dolak said. "Her inability to recall makes sense. … She can plead ignorance to anything."
In counter to Dolak's closing statement, Sams said if the victim was such an "evil genius, why didn't she make up a better story? … She was passed out and unable to give consent and this man was a doctor who knew that."
A sentencing date has not yet been set by the judge.
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