Matthew R. Leisten, Ogle County State’s Attorney’s Office, Oregon
815-732-1170 | Email Matthew R. Leisten
No Charge, No Conviction: Appellate Court Reverses Trial Court’s Uncharged Offense Conviction in Teacher-Student Battery Case
The First District Appellate Court reversed a trial court’s ruling in People v. Zanio, 2025 IL App (1st) 241643, in which the defendant was acquitted of battery but found guilty of the uncharged offense of disorderly conduct in connection with groping a minor student at the school where he was a teacher.
The defendant in Zanio was charged with battery for allegedly touching the breast of a 12-year-old student at school. 2025 IL App (1st) 241643 at ¶4. As the only witness during the bench trial, the minor student testified that the defendant put a stack of papers against her chest and grabbed her breast with his other hand. The student’s Child Advocacy Center interview about the incident was published at trial. 2025 IL App (1st) 241643 at ¶¶6 – 7.
The trial court found the student’s testimony credible and characterized the conduct of the 83-year-old defendant as “insulting, alarming, unreasonable, disturbing, threatening, [and] abusive.” 2025 IL App (1st) 241643 at ¶9. However, the trial court did not feel his conduct amounted to battery and instead found him guilty of disorderly conduct, an uncharged offense. Id.
The appellate court noted that defendants generally cannot be convicted of uncharged offenses because they have a due process right to notice of the crimes charged. However, an exception to that rule is if the uncharged offense is a lesser included offense of the charged offense and the evidence at trial rationally supports a conviction on the lesser included offense and an acquittal on the greater offense. The court found the defendant’s conviction did not fit that exception. 2025 IL App (1st) 241643 at ¶14.
The appellate court stated that a lesser included offense is proved by the same or less than all the facts, a less culpable mental state, or both, as is required to prove the charged offense. Under the “charging instrument approach,” if the charging instrument “contain[s] a broad foundation or main outline of the lesser offense,” then the lesser offense is included in the charged offense. 2025 IL App (1st) 241643 at ¶¶16 – 17, quoting People v. Clark, 2016 IL 118845, ¶31, 50 N.E.3d 1120, 401 Ill.Dec. 638. The charging instrument does not have to explicitly state all the elements of the lesser offense but must broadly describe the conduct needed to commit the lesser offense, and it must be possible to reasonably infer any missing element from the factual allegations. 2025 IL App (1st) 241643 at ¶17.
The appellate court wrangled with whether the defendant’s conduct provoked “a breach of the peace,” which is an element of disorderly conduct. 2025 IL App (1st) 241643 at ¶¶19 – 20. The complaint stated that the defendant was a teacher who grabbed the breast of the student over her clothing, that the student was under the age of 13, and that this occurred at school. The court decided that the defendant was not put on notice that the conduct in the complaint could constitute disorderly conduct, in part because it was brief, isolated conduct that was not an overt threat amounting to a breach of the peace. 2025 IL App (1st) 241643 at ¶¶21, 24.
The appellate court ultimately criticized the trial court for acquitting the defendant of battery when the student’s testimony was uncontradicted, she was found to be credible, and there was no dispute that the defendant made insulting or provoking contact with her. 2025 IL App (1st) 241643 at ¶35. While the appellate court understood that the trial court wanted to “give [the defendant] the benefit of some grace regarding his conduct,” it found the circumstances did not allow him to be convicted of an uncharged offense and reversed the trial court’s judgment. 2025 IL App (1st) 241643 at ¶37.
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