People v. Wahl (In re Commitment of Wahl)

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2024 IL App (2d) 220422-U

In re COMMITMENT OF CHAD WAHL

The People of the State of Illinois, Petitioner-Appellee v. Chad Wahl, Respondent-Appellant.

No. 2-22-0422

Court of Appeals of Illinois, Second District

March 15, 2024

This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23(b) and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Kane County. No. 13-MR-995 Honorable Salvatore LoPiccolo Jr., Judge, Presiding.

JUSTICE Hutchinson delivered the judgment of the court. Justices Schostok and Mullen concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

Hutchinson, Justice

¶ 1 Held: The evidence presented was sufficient to prove that respondent is a sexually violent person with a mental disorder that makes him substantially probable to engage in further acts of sexual violence.

¶ 2 Respondent appeals from the trial court's finding that he is a sexually violent person. He contends that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that (1) he has a mental disorder; and (2) his mental disorder makes it substantially probable that he will engage in future acts of sexual violence. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

¶ 3 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 4 In October 1990, respondent was hired as a houseparent at Mooseheart, a "child city" where children who have family problems or no parents are allowed to live until age 18. Between June 1991 and March 1992, respondent sexually abused at least six different victims, all under the age of 13. On November 3, 1993, he was convicted of six counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, one count of aggravated sexual assault, and one count of attempted aggravated criminal sexual assault. On January 21, 1994, respondent was sentenced to an aggregate term of 41 years' imprisonment.

¶ 5 On November 12, 2013, just before the end of respondent's sentence, the State filed a petition for sexually violent person commitment. The petition alleged that respondent is a sexually violent person as defined in section 5(f) of the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act (the Act) (725 ILCS 207/5(f)) based on a September 30, 2013, evaluation by Dr. Melissa Weldon-Padera. The evaluation found that respondent suffers from pedophilic disorder, non-exclusive type, sexually attracted to males, and other specified personality disorder, narcissistic personality traits. The State further alleged that respondent's mental disorders made it substantially probable that he will engage in acts of sexual violence.

¶ 6 A bench trial on the State's petition began on October 30, 2019. The State called Dr. Weldon-Padera, an expert in the area of evaluation and risk assessment of sex offenders. Dr. Weldon-Padera interviewed respondent for evaluation on September 30, 2013, and May 23, 2019. She described the facts of respondent's crimes that led to her opinion that he is a sexually violent person. Respondent was employed at Mooseheart, "a place where young children who have either been abandoned or abused or orphaned" resided. Respondent was placed "in a position of trust and authority acting essentially as a primary caregiver for these kids." While at Mooseheart, respondent set up a "reward program" for the children in which he allowed them to sleep on the living room floor on weekend nights and watch movies. It was during these times when respondent would lay underneath the blanket with the children to sexually abuse them. Respondent would buy the children "gifts and *** he told them certain things to make them feel that they were special in order to groom the victims." When he was ultimately arrested, respondent admitted to molesting two of the victims on two occasions. However, he later stated to police that "he may have forgotten some things due to nervousness" and suggested that he needed counseling.

¶ 7 Respondent denied all offenses during his interviews with Dr. Weldon-Padera, referring to his victims as his "accusers." He described the children as "manipulative and deceitful." Respondent suggested that the investigating detective had bribed the children to make up the allegations against him. He further suggested that the investigating detective and the judge in his underlying case were close friends involved in a conspiracy to get him convicted.

¶ 8 Dr. Weldon-Padera relied on reports from the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) which found that respondent was indicated for sexual molestation of ten boys, and sexual penetration of two boys. "[S]pecifically that he had fondled all ten of the boys' penises and that he had inserted his finger into two of the boys' anuses.

¶ 9 Dr. Weldon-Padera testified to her review of records from the Illinois Department of Corrections, detailing books letters, articles, and other documents that were written to from, or found in possession of respondent. Most of the items were dates from 2011 to 2013. She recalled the books in respondent's possession as follows:

"[O]ne of them was called Online Sexual Predators, which was about exposing predators' secrets of how to groom victims, *** tricks on how to evade the police. Specifically I think they wrote in the description how shady entrepreneurs are involved in child exploitation or make money on child exploitation.

Another book was on modern day slavery, which was about the slave trade and specifically about *** the sexual trafficking of children.

Another one was a Japanese film handbook, which contained very graphic sexual and violent content and images.

There was a book about pornography, not only on how to edit, direct it, things about the content in pornography but also portrayed specific case of - - for example, a child pornography they called it a star or an actor, a murder victim, and babysitters who raped infants.

There was a book on the Dunblane massacre, which was written from the view of the pedophile who murdered 16 children, which contained writings on very sexually explicit detail of sex with children and also homosexuality.

They also found in his possession there was a 100-page long book list which seemed to be sort of a wish list or things that he wanted to or planned to order, and all of the books *** had sexually related content or themes, such as sexual predators, child abuse, prostitution, and erotic stories related to men and to young boys."

¶ 10 Dr. Weldon-Padera recalled the various articles found in respondent's possession as follows:

"He had several newspaper articles on serial killers, some of whom had also sexually assaulted and raped the victims, some of victims being young men and boys. One specific serial killer was from Illinois, in fact was incarcerated in Illinois. Another one had victims throughout the Midwest.

He also had newspaper articles on GPS devices and microchips, and then they also found a manuscript that was titled how to raise a serial killer without really trying."

¶ 11 Dr. Weldon-Padera testified that respondent was writing a novel while incarcerated about "a young orphaned boy who had turned into a sex slave for a powerful, authoritative adult male on a spaceship." She said the novel contained "a sexual assault scene" as well as "sexually explicit details about molesting and grooming the boy."

¶ 12 Respondent had letters in his possession while incarcerated that spoke to the issue of civil commitment. Dr. Weldon-Padera noted that the letters detailed respondent's planning and preparation for being civilly committed or evaluated. The letters noted that respondent had "studied every civil commitment case" so that he would be prepared. Respondent wrote that he would be "aware of *** the tricks of the mental health professionals or the interviewer when the time came." He indicated that because he had no prior offenses, he would not meet the criteria for civil commitment. Respondent's letters further mention that he would not talk to any evaluator or interviewer about his real intentions.

¶ 13 Respondent discussed his "future business plans" in some of his letters. Dr. Weldon-Padera recalled various letters to various individuals, wherein respondent wrote that

"[H]e and his friend, who is a registered sex offender, who had previously been convicted for child pornography, had identified the country of Morocco as a good place where they would be able to get away with finding children to involve in their child pornography business plan due to the fact that they have more lax morals and laws there compared to the United States.

He talks about his *** "plan A" *** being a *** "legitimate and good front," *** of his export business. He then talks about his *** "plan B," *** being his illegal business plan in which he alludes to children and says that he and his friend, who is also of the *** "KP type," *** which is common knowledge for being referred to as kiddy porn, that his friend wants to make movies because it's good money, and he also asks his other friend TJ in a letter to run a video camera and to film anything that he sees.

He admits in letters to doing extensive research and documentation on setting up a business overseas.

He also reaches out to friends and a previous purchaser of his father's child pornography in order to get contact information, which presumably could be inferred to be because he wants assistance in setting up his own child pornography business."

¶ 14 Respondent requested and received stories and pictures detailing pedophilia while incarcerated. One such story was about a 16-year-old boy grooming and molesting a seven-year-old boy. Respondent referred to that story in a subsequent letter, stating that he enjoyed it. He received an animated picture of a young boy wearing only an undershirt and underwear. He received an internet article about teaching...