Reiss blames public defender for conviction; says new witness can prove no abuse occurred
SYCAMORE – A DeKalb County judge said Monday that it will be October before he can rule on whether a man convicted of assaulting a child with Asperger's Syndrome and sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2014 should get a new trial.
DeKalb County Judge William Brady said during a hearing at the DeKalb County Courthouse that it will take months for him to thoroughly review Jimmy A. Reiss' petition to vacate Reiss' conviction on charges of predatory criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
"Obviously, there is a lot of material that must be reviewed in preparing for the ruling," Brady said during the Monday hearing. "And that's going to take an extensive period of time."
• • •
Reiss, (above) 46, formerly of Sycamore, was a family friend of the victim, who was 7 years old at the time of the assault in 2011, prosecutors have said. The abuse occurred while Reiss and a 16-year-old were supervising the child, authorities have said. He has been an inmate at the medium-security Centralia Correctional Center.
A four-day trial in April 2013 resulted in a hung jury, but jurors found Reiss guilty after a three-day trial in January 2014.
Reiss also said in his 2017 post-conviction petition that a cousin also was awake and in the room at the time of the Sept. 17, 2011 incident, and that no abuse occurred.
Reiss's lawyer, Nicholas Curran, said during the Monday hearing that Reiss's former public defender, Robert Nolan, failed to challenge the state's expert child psychology witness and the victim's counselor Elba Karim.
Curran conceded that the state was allowed to present Karim as an expert witness, but argued the defense should have pointed out to the jury that Karim was not a licensed child psychologist and therefore couldn't diagnose or treat anyone in that field.
Curran said Nolan also failed to subpoena the victim's previous treatment records to determine whether any symptoms of anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder existed before the 2011 incident. When Curran asked Nolan whether he got the victim's medical records before, Nolan told him he didn't and that he should have, Curran said.
"Mr. Nolan simply missed the mark," Curran said.
DeKalb County Assistant State's Attorney Alicia Caplan said during the Monday ruling that Nolan previously took opportunities to discredit the victim's counselor by saying she gave a diagnostic impression too early and without having the victim's prior medical records.
Caplan said Nolan also asked questions where the counselor responded by saying that some symptoms of Asperger's syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder can overlap.
"Even though he didn't call an expert to come and point out that these were issues ... he was able to get Ms. Karim to testify about that," Caplan said.
Reiss has exhausted his appeals, leaving a petition for post-conviction relief his last resort. Reiss's conviction was affirmed Aug. 18, 2015, by a state appellate court, and on Jan. 20, 2016, the state's Supreme Court denied his appeal, according to court records.
The victim and her family were not in the courtroom during the Monday hearing. Curran confirmed that Reiss's mother and sister attended the hearing.
Reiss is due back in court 1:30 p.m. Oct. 29.