Jury finds Crystal Lake man guilty of sexually assaulting child

A jury on Thursday found a Crystal Lake man guilty of sexually assaulting a child repeatedly over an 18-month period between 2017 and 2019.

Richard Rowland, 60, was found guilty of three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault, Class X felonies, by a jury after nearly five hours of deliberation, Assistant State’s Attorney Maggie O’Brien said. Rowland could face decades in prison for each count, according to Illinois statute. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 13, according to court documents.

Rowland was convicted of sexually assaulting a child he knew who was 7 or 8 years old at the time, according to court testimony in the jury trial that began Monday.

Rowland, an information technology engineer, was arrested in March and has been held in county jail pretrial since then, court records show.

On Wednesday, while being questioned by his attorney, Christopher Taylor, and with about 20 supporters present in the courtroom, Rowland calmly answered “no” to all questions about whether he had any sexual contact with the child. He was asked whether he’d ever been alone with the child in a bathroom, where two of the incidents were alleged to have occurred, to which he said “no.” Taylor asked Rowland if he had any attraction to “prepubescent children” and he answered “no.” He was asked if there was “any truth to the allegations” and Rowland calmly answered, “There is no truth to that.”

O’Brien showed the jury a police camera recording from Belvidere Detective Ethan Berillo questioning Rowland. Rowland is recorded saying to Berillo, “If you can prove I did it, prove I did it. Do your best. That’s your job.”

Rowland also has a pending case in Boone County, where Belvidere is located and where he’s accused of three counts of criminal sexual assault. Rowland’s next court date in Boone County is set for Jan. 8, according to court documents.

McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Justin Neubauer said Rowland “regularly” yelled and abused the child. Even though Rowland was charged with three counts, Neubauer said the victim claimed the abuse happened “almost every day,” based on previous testimony.

“This is about power and control,” Neubauer said in a closing statement. “And Richard Rowland betrayed that trust.”

Taylor argued Rowland should be found not guilty because the prosecution’s lack of evidence makes the accusations “far-fetched.” Taylor compared it to the Salem witch trials of the 1600s.

“Wouldn’t some other human being on the planet have seen the crying and bruising?” Taylor said. “That’s corroborating evidence, and none of that exists.”

That evidence, prosecutors argued, can be easily hidden, especially when it comes to child sexual assault cases. Bruises on the inner thighs can be hidden from doctors doing routine flu shots and 95% of physical exams to find evidence of abuse don’t show any abnormalities if conducted years afterward, O’Brien said.

The victim’s “body healed on the outside, but it did not heal on the inside,” the prosecutor said.