Jury acquits Island Lake man of sexual assault after hearing woman’s secret recording of encounter

Jurors have found an Island Lake man not guilty of sexual assault following dramatic testimony that included the woman’s secret recording of the Christmas Eve 2021 encounter.

After about an hour and a half of deliberating Wednesday, the jury in McHenry County acquitted Hunter Johnson, 32. He had been accused of criminal sexual assault with use of force, a Class 1 felony, and two counts of misdemeanor domestic battery, but he was cleared of all charges.

During the trial, jurors heard a recording the woman secretly made during the alleged assault. She is heard crying and saying “stop,” and “it hurts.”

Jurors heard Johnson on the recording say, “You can cry all you want, literally nobody cares. ... You gotta let me do it. ... You’re gonna take it.” He is also heard at least once telling her he loves and only wants to be with her. Prosecutors had asserted during closing arguments Wednesday that this was part of his manipulation to get what he wanted, a notion the jury seemingly rejected.

Following the acquittal, one of Johnson’s attorney, Adam Sheppard, said, “It was a just verdict.”

“There was a lack of corroboration of her allegations, a delay in her outcry, and we argued the steps she took [following the encounter] were not consistent with someone who was a rape victim,” Sheppard said.

The woman said after the trial that when she heard the words not guilty, “I just went numb. ... I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that after hearing the audio of the actual incident they could still find him not guilty.”

The defense attorney said the woman used the recording to threaten Johnson and did not make a police report even when an officer was at Johnson’s house in 2022. During closing arguments, fellow defense attorney Barry Sheppard told jurors the woman was “controlling,” “jealous” and “a manipulator.“ He also said that no one knows what people ”do behind closed doors.”

In his final statement to jurors, Barry Sheppard said the state did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt and if deliberating and jurors are not sure, “the tie goes to the defendant.”

“The jury seemed to concur with our interpretation of the evidence virtue of the fact he was found not guilty on all counts,” Adam Sheppard said after court.

During the trial, prosecutors had argued that it didn’t matter if the two had had sex before and after this incident, because this time she’d said no. In closing arguments, Assistant State’s Attorney Justin Neubauer turned and walked toward Johnson, whose head was down, and said, “When a woman says ‘no,’ you don’t. That’s how simple it is. When a woman says ‘no,’ you don’t.”

Johnson “took what he wanted by force. He didn’t care about her or what she wanted,” fellow prosecutor Matthew Brodersen told jurors. “She did not consent. There is no reason to disbelieve what happened that night. You heard it on a recording.”

The defense sought to minimize the interaction. Barry Sheppard questioned whether the incident was just “aggressive sex.”

Sheppard asked why the woman didn’t leave the house if she was afraid. She replied from the witness stand that she didn’t leave because she feared he would only follow her home as he had done in the past. She said she brought him food from her family Christmas party that night and was going to drop it off and go home to wrap presents. She had no intent to have sex with him that night but, she testified, Johnson was drunk and threatening.

The recording captured the beginning of the encounter. The woman is heard crying, saying “no” and “stop” and telling Johnson he was hurting her. She testified she “froze up” was shocked at what was happening.

After that night, the couple continued their relationship for about a year and a half but she testified that Johnson was abusive. Neubauer said throughout Johnson and the woman’s relationship, Johnson “bullied and gaslighted her.”

The woman, the state’s only witness, testified Johnson was drunk and “scary,” that night, that his anger escalated and that he slapped her. She said she feared for her life that night.

On the recording, he is heard threatening that he would get “hookers” and “whores” if she would not have sex with him. He called her names, told her to “stop crying” and “shut up.”

“You are a ridiculous woman,” jurors heard him say on the recording. “I don’t want to hear your stupidness.”

The woman said she did not report the assault sooner because she was not yet ready and hoped he would change. However, she said things only became worse. She became ready in 2023 to come forward with her allegation after talking to a domestic abuse advocate and attending a support group, she said.

After court, the woman said that moving forward she will focus on pursuing her degree in forensic psychology and neurobiology. She wants to work with prison inmates convicted of violent crimes and sex crimes. She hopes to do clinical work to help determine risk factors and help inmates after they leave prison so they do not reoffend.

“It’s going to be really hard for some time to move forward ... It doesn’t feel final yet because he is walking free,” the woman said. Although it is not the outcome she wanted, she said she feels like speaking up about what happened was the right thing.

Adam Barry said with this behind him, Johnson will continue caring for his mother and is “naturally relieved as anybody would be.”