A Chicago man can't overturn his conviction for allegedly sexually assaulting his then-four-year-old-daughter by asserting that physician-patient privilege should have stopped a jury from viewing medical test results indicating he had twice tested positive for chlamydia and likely passed the sexually transmitted disease to his child, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled.
On March 21, the state high court rejected the attempt by Ramon Torres to argue his lawyer had violated his constitutional rights by not objecting to the admission of the medical test results at his trial.
According to court documents, a Cook County jury convicted Torres in 2019 of criminal sexual assault against the child. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
Illinois Supreme Court Justice David Overstreet
| Illinoiscourts.gov
Following the conviction, Torres claimed on appeal that his conviction and sentence were based on his lawyer's alleged "constitutionally ineffective" representation of him at trial. Particularly, Torres asserted he could not have been convicted if the jury had not seen medical test results, indicating he had twice tested positive for chlamydia in 2013 and 2016.
The test results were relevant because the sexual abuse of the girl was brought to light in 2013 when the then-four-year-old child was taken to the doctor complaining of pain while urinating. Test results by her physicians revealed the girl had contracted chlamydia.
Because chlamydia is transmitted sexually, the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services was called in, and both parents were ordered to take chlamydia screening tests. The child's mother tested negative.
However, Torres allegedly instead went to get treated for urinary pain. He also at that time tested positive for chlamydia, but never revealed the test results to his family.
According to court documents, interviews with the child did not lead investigators to conclude Torres had committed the alleged act that transmitted the virus to his daughter.
However, when the girl again tested positive three years later, both Torres and the girl's mother were ordered to test for the disease. Both tested positive.
Interviews with the girl by investigators again did not reveal that Torres had allegedly assaulted his daughter. However, the girl's mother later filed a sexual assault report against Torres, saying the girl had revealed to her that Torres had allegedly assaulted her while she was staying the night at a relative's house in 2013.
Torres was then charged and later convicted.
In his appeal, Torres asserts the chlamydia test results should have been protected by physician-patient privilege. He asserted his attorney should have objected, and the test results suppressed.
But those arguments failed to persuade either a state appeals panel or the Illinois Supreme Court.
In a unanimous decision, authored by Justice David K. Overstreet, the state Supreme Court ruled the physician-patient privilege does not extend to medical information collected as part of an investigation into a report of sexual abuse or assault filed under the state's Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act.
Overstreet noted lawmakers specifically exempted such investigations from a patient's normal medical privacy rights.
"... We conclude that the physician-patient privilege enacted by our legislature allows the admission of information normally protected by physician-patient privilege in all actions, civil or criminal, arising from the filing of a report in compliance with the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act, including defendant’s jury trial in the present case, which arose from the filing of a DCFS report," Overstreet wrote.
"As a result, had defendant’s attorney objected to the admission of the 2013 chlamydia test results, the objection would have been futile."