People v. Eckert

After trial before a jury in the criminal court of St. Clair County, Elmer Eckert was found guilty of two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and sentenced to serve 14 years’ imprisonment concurrently on each count.

The victim in this case was defendant’s 13-year-old daughter. The victim testified at trial that the defendant first sexually assaulted her when she was in the fourth or fifth grade. She did not report this incident to her mother because her father warned her not to, and because she feared her mother would not believe her. It wasn’t until the summer of 1985 that she told…