An appeals court has partially reversed a jury's decision to convict a McLean County man for sexually assaulting a teenage girl in 2022.
Richard Gaines, 47, is serving a 59-year sentence after prosecutors successfully argued he assaulted a 14-year-old girl multiple times.
Gaines is said to have met the girl while she was living with family members at a Bloomington hotel. Gaines was staying in a separate room and approached the girl in the hotel's public spaces and began flirting with her. This conduct escalated, prosecutors said, to physical contact and sexual intercourse on several occasions, extending beyond the family's hotel stay.
In court filings from last month, the appellate court said there was insufficient evidence to prove Gaines' guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on certain charges, upholding a partial conviction and tossing out two counts of criminal sexual assault, which requires evidence the victim was restrained, scared of the defendant, resisted the defendant or said "no."
The Fourth District Appellate Court found the element of force applied in a third conviction, referencing an instance in which Gaines is said to have handcuffed the girl to a grab bar in the hotel bathroom.
Gaines' case will be returned to the trial court for resentencing.
April Mench, a co-defendant convicted of obstructing justice in the case, also had her conviction overturned on appeal, according to court filings dated Jan. 31, 2025. She was released from Logan Correctional Center in March 2025 after serving a sentence for unrelated charges.
In an email to WGLT, Mench said she "will be fighting for this man to still receive the maximum sentence that he can receive."
