Whiteside County jury seated in Sterling sex assault trial

MORRISON — A jury has been selected to decide the case of a Freeport man charged with sex assault and aggravated battery in Whiteside County in 2023.

The eight-man, four-woman jury, sworn in at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday after a day-long selection process, will hear the case against LeAndrew T. Adams, who is charged with one count of attempted predatory criminal sexual assault of a victim younger than 13, two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault.

Testimony is slated to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Whiteside County Courthouse in Morrison. The most serious of the offenses, the predatory criminal sexual assault charges, could send Adams to prison for up to 60 years if he is convicted.

Adams, 22, was taken into custody April 12, 2023, in the 800 block of West LeFevre in Sterling after police got a call reporting an attempted assault, according to a news release from Sterling police.

According to the charging documents, Adams is accused of grabbing a preteen girl as they were walking past Washington Elementary School, 815 W. LeFevre Road, put his hand over her mouth, and pulled down her and his pants.

She fought back when he tried to pull her toward the school and escaped, immediately running to an adult who was on the playground. That person called 911, and officers captured Adams, whom the girl identified as her attacker, after a short foot chase, according to the release.

During a hearing Friday, Whiteside County Public Defender James Fagerman sought to have the charges against Adams dismissed on the grounds that Adams’ right to a speedy trial was violated.

Fagerman said that violation occurred when the trial date was pushed into February after prosecutors learned in November that a material witness was unavailable to testify at the planned December trial because she was on parental and medical leave.

Fagerman said Adams would have needed to be tried by Dec. 16, 2024, to meet the speedy trial deadline that the judge had earlier extended. That deadline, which was counted from July 9, the date when he was sentenced in another case, would have been met, but during the prosecutor’s work to subpoena witnesses, they learned that an Illinois State Police employee was unable to testify because she is out on family leave. Prosecutors said that if the witness testified, she was at risk of losing employee benefits.

That ended up pushing the trial date from early December to Feb. 11, and past the 160-day deadline. Fagerman, however, said the witness actually was available to testify, and pointed out that the lab work she completed was finished before she went on leave.

Whiteside County Circuit Judge James Heuerman ultimately disagreed Friday and refused to dismiss the case, stating that the officer’s risk of losing benefits meant she was unable to work, which includes testifying as an employee of state police.

Adams, formerly of Chicago and Gary, Indiana, was on probation for theft at the time of his arrest. He pleaded guilty in July to aggravated battery of a peace officer, which he was charged with in October 2023, and was sentenced to three years in prison. A second charge of aggravated battery of a peace officer was dismissed.