June 18, 2008

FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. A central Illinois jury found a former Bloomington sergeant guilty Wednesday of viciously raping four women after a trial during he was described both as driven by pornography-fueled fantasies and a wrongly accused man arrested on flimsy evidence.

Jurors deliberated over parts of three days before convicting Jeff Pelo on 35 counts, which included 25 of aggravated sexual assault. Pelo pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts originally facing him; two charges were dropped during trial.

He has been jailed since his June 2006 arrest, unable to afford the $100,000 he'd have to pay to make his $1 million bail. Pelo was charged in the rapes of four women between 2002 and 2005 and the stalking of a fifth woman.

The case was long delayed, in part by Pelo's attorneys. His first withdrew from the trial because of health problems, and the two who took his place withdrew after several months because Pelo couldn't afford them.

At trial, prosecutor Mark Messman portrayed Pelo as a man driven on the one hand to rape by violent, pornography-fueled fantasies, and on the other by a desire to be his victims' boyfriend. At least one of the women described her attacker as gentle and polite.

Investigators found numerous images of violent pornography - some of depicting forced sex at gunpoint - on Pelo's home computer.

"He has some fantasy, as messed up as it sounds, that they're going to like him," Messman told jurors during his closing arguments.

Pelo is scheduled to be sentenced August 12.