A jury is now deliberating the fate of a Highland Park man who claimed that he was merely acting out his accuser’s sexual fantasy when authorities said he broke into a Wheeling home and bound, raped at gunpoint and robbed a woman staying there.
While testifying in his own defense Thursday, Matthew Schaffer, 33, also said he had been a marijuana dealer since high school and that the woman had invited him over after he had sold marijuana to her.
His testimony contradicts the account given by the 31-year-old woman, who was in town visiting friends when the alleged assault occurred last year.
She testified earlier this week that a man wearing a pantyhose mask entered her bedroom, handcuffed her, held a knife to her throat, pointed a handgun at her and then raped her.
She said the man threatened to kill her and took her Cartier watch, wedding ring and $100 in cash before fleeing.
Schaffer was arrested last June after police learned he pawned the watch in Chicago for $500, using his passport for identification, prosecutors said.
Under questioning by defense attorney Catherine O’Daniel, Schaffer said he received a call from the woman on May 22, 2010. He claimed the two had met several times before outside a Rush Street restaurant in Chicago, where she had purchased marijuana from him and engaged in a sex act in a parking garage, he said.
“She wanted to know if we could meet up the suburbs,” Schaffer testified, boasting that he only sold the best marijuana.
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Schaffer said he met the woman at the residence where they smoked marijuana and had consensual sex using handcuffs and a toy gun.
He said she owed him $250 for marijuana but only had $100 in cash and gave him the watch as payment. He said he did not take her wedding ring or other jewelry items that prosecutors said were missing from the home.
Prosecutors said Schaffer had intially told investigators that the watch he had pawned had been a gift from his ex-wife.
During closing arguments today at the Rolling Meadows branch of Cook County Circuit Court, Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Andre called Schaffer’s version of events “utter and complete nonsense.”
Earlier, while cross-examining Schaffer, Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Clarke pointed out that Schaffer did not tell authorities when first questioned that he was acting out the woman’s sexual fantasy.
Clarke said Schaffer did say while when he was at the Wheeling Police Department that he should have killed the woman.
Schaffer denied that he made the comment.
Prosecutors said Schaffer, who said he has a master’s degree in education and bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University, cut open the screen door to the home and was looking for valuables.
Following his arrest, police searched the home of Schaffer’s parents and his car and found pantyhose, a replica .380 pistol, white rubber gloves and his passport, authorities have said. Schaffer’s DNA was also found on the shirt the woman was wearing, prosecutors said.
If convicted of the charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault, home invasion and armed robbery, Schaffer could face 40 years or more in prison.
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