Jury Rejects 'Consensual' Argument In 2010 Wheeling Rape
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A Highland Park man was convicted Monday of handcuffing and raping an oral surgeon at knifepoint after breaking into the Wheeling condominium she was
visiting.
The Cook County jury deliberated more than 16 hours over two days before convicting 33-year-old Matthew Schaffer of the 2010 attack.
Schaffer's attorneys argued last week during his trial that he had taken part in consensual, "unorthodox" sex with the 31-year-old married woman, who was staying with friends while visiting the Chicago area.
"I'm disappointed," defense attorney Ralph Meczyk said after jurors — who began deliberating Friday — returned the guilty verdict Monday evening.
The New York woman testified that she could not identify her attacker because he was wearing a pantyhose mask over his face when she awoke to find him in her bedroom early on May 23, 2010.
But she insisted she had never previously seen Schaffer, whose DNA was found on the shirt she was wearing the night of the assault.
Her Cartier watch was taken during the break-in, but later was found in a Chicago pawnshop — with Schaffer's name and address on the receipt, prosecutors said during the trial.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
