Summary: Two years after being charged by Chicago prosecutors, Stanley Stallworth, a once prominent attorney at Sidley Austin, was found not guilty.
It has been two years since Sidley Austin real estate partner Stanley Stallworth was charged by prosecutors of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man. A Chicago judge has now found Stallworth not guilty of those charges.
Stallworth joined Sidley Austin in 1990 in the Chicago office. After he was charged, he withdrew his partnership in December 2013 and retired from the firm. He had served as co-chair of Sidley Austin’s Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity.
The alleged victim in the case claims that Stallworth and Stallworth’s nephew Therrie Miller sexually assaulted him while he was unconscious in Stallworth’s South Side Chicago home. He claims that Miller invited him to the residence where he only had a little to drink before blacking out. He claims to have come conscious with Miller performing a sexual act on him and Stallworth did the same. The alleged victim then claims to have awoken naked in the house the following morning. After telling his mother about the incident, he was treated at a hospital.
Cook County Judge Clayton Crane gave out the not guilty verdict after a bench trial. DNA tests did not implicate Stallworth or Miller and police never visited the home where the supposed crime was believed to have taken place. Stallworth was represented by lead counsel Donna Rotunno and law firm Henderson Adam. Miller was represented by Tony Thedford.
Through a statement, Stallworth criticized the Chicago police for presenting this case with missing evidence and that was not provable.
Photo: chicagotribune.com