‘You expect us to believe that?’ Schnack challenges truthfulness of testimony from Rodhouse’s wife

PITTSFIELD, Ill. — When Austin Rodhouse’s wife confirmed during testimony Wednesday morning that she performed and recorded an oral sex act with her oldest son while her husband was working in Utah, defense attorney Casey Schnack said, “You knew it was wrong.”

“I did it because I was threatened and manipulated,” Rodhouse’s wife replied.

That give-and-take was just one example of Schnack’s cross-examination during the seventh day of the Austin Rodhouse trial in in Pike County Circuit Court.

Rodhouse, who turns 31 next week, is being tried on 19 domestic violence and sex-related felonies.

• 3 counts of aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony with a sentencing range of between three and seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. 
• 1 count of criminal sexual assault involving force, a Class 1 felony with a sentencing range of between four and 15 years in prison.
• 4 counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, a Class X felony with a sentencing range of six to 60 years in prison.
• 3 counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, a Class X felony with a sentencing range of six to 30 years in prison.
• 2 counts of child pornography, a Class X felony with a sentencing range of six to 30 years in prison.
• 3 counts of indecent solicitation of an adult, a Class 2 felony with a sentencing range of three to seven years in prison.
• 3 counts of aggravated battery to a child, a Class 3 felony with a sentencing range of two to five years in prison.

Testimony in the trial before Judge Charles H.W. Burch is expected to resume at 9 a.m. Thursday. Rodhouse, a Pleasant Hill native, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Rodhouse used vice to help break wife’s right ring finger

Rodhouse’s wife, identified in court documents as “CC,” began Wednesday by completing her answers to questions from Pike County Assistant State’s Attorney Leecia Carnes.

She detailed beatings and lashings she said she routinely received from Rodhouse. She said a scar on her chest is from when Rodhouse ran a pocket knife along her torso, stopping at her rib cage and threatening to push it into her heart.

CC also explained how Rodhouse wanted her to insert a large red cone-like plug into her anus. She said she told Rodhouse multiple times it wasn’t possible, and he set an egg timer and told her she had to accomplish the feat in a certain time or “I’m going to come in there and I’m going to do it.”

Eventually CC was on the bed on her hands and knees, and Rodhouse attempted to insert the plug while using his knee. When that failed, Rodhouse put his fist in her anus. 

“I was bleeding. I was on fire,” CC said.

CC said Rodhouse sent her a picture of a finger completely on its side, bent 90 degrees, and that she needed to break her right ring finger to “show commitment to the family.” Rodhouse eventually put her finger in a vice in the shed in the backyard of their Pleasant Hill home, but he still wasn’t satisfied.

“He would take my finger and hold it with one hand and then push it over,” CC testified.

Rodhouse then gave her lashings with a rubber bungee cord, a pole and a piece of wood found in the shed. CC called the pain in her finger “unbearable” and said she still has difficulty writing and gripping things.

She said Rodhouse was performing anal sex with her on April 19 — “his hand was inside me like a puppet” — and she fought back, ending up on the floor.

“I was bleeding a lot,” she said. “I felt like my organs were coming out.”

Rodhouse later used a tire thumper to whack her in the head, creating a gash that bled profusely. She said he used Gorilla Glue to fix the wound.

‘You will find peace eight feet under’

Carnes then reviewed many of the sexual attacks and beatings, asking which room in their Pleasant Hill home they happened in. Carnes then had CC read an April 2 text message between the couple and another woman living in the home.

“If and when I ever call it quits and leave you both, (CC), you will find peace eight feet under,” Rodhouse wrote. “(The other woman has) a family she may go home to.”

“I was a robot,” CC said. “I couldn’t show any emotion. … I stuck it out for the safety of my children.”

‘He wasn’t standing over you with a gun to your head’

During cross-examination, Schnack constantly referred to text messages sent from CC’s phone showing how she wanted to remain in the marriage and that she acted of her own free will regarding sex acts with her husband and her children. She consistently asked about each time the family moved if she had a phone and if Rodhouse had a phone, also noting that they both had Life 360, a GPS tracking device.

Schnack asked if CC had any sexual encounters with her children in 2022.

“None that I wanted,” CC replied.

Schnack had CC review a day when she was doing vaginal training in the home and her son watched. CC told Schnack she had a shirt on but no bottoms.

“Anal training really isn’t something that kids should watch, is it?” Schnack asked.

“I kept telling (her son) to go into the living room,” CC replied.

“And this would be a common way for your children to see you?” Schnack said. CC said yes.

When Schnack asked where Rodhouse was at this time, CC said he was at a job site in the St. Louis area.

“He wasn’t standing over you with a gun to your head,” Schnack said.

Schnack then reads the BDSM contract that CC signed on Jan. 19. She then asks if a divorce had ever been discussed, and CC said it had. A text from Rodhouse on July 31, 2023, offered to make getting a divorce easy, saying he would go to the Pike County Courthouse and get the paperwork.

“You did not want a divorce, did you?” Schnack said. “You wanted to stay with Austin and you wanted to grow your family.” 

CC agreed and then said, “I was at my wit’s end.”

Wife says Rodhouse forced her to write document for order of protection

Schnack then read a document written July 17, 2023, by CC as part of her request for an order of protection against her father. The document said her father was demanding CC and her boys need to go to Ohio, “and if we did not agree, he would take us against our will.”

“If Austin’s family tries to protect him, he would kill them,” the document said. “He has made inappropriate remarks about my sexuality and sexual lifestyle, and I am no longer this beautiful little girl since I got my face tattoos. He claims he sent topless pictures of me in the jacuzzi with female friends to DCFS, claiming my sexuality is a concern for the kids.”

The document ended saying CC’s father threatened to send “ruthless Russians” after Austin.

“Your words?” Schnack asked.

“My handwriting. Not my words,” CC replied.

Schnack then asked if CC had committed perjury when she appeared before Judge Zachary Boren each time she appeared in court on subsequent dates to extend the order of protection.

“Did you tell them on Sept. 13 that you were lying?” Schnack asked.

“No, because I wasn’t allowed to,” CC replied.

“Because you were more worried about going to jail than telling the truth,” Schnack said.

“I was worried about the repercussions, and I was worried about getting my kids taken away from me,” CC said.

Rodhouse’s wife admits to four sexual encounters with children

Schnack then read messages sent from CC’s phone to Rodhouse’s phone about how much she enjoyed sex acts with her children.

“Did you send this?” Schnack said.

“Referring to what Austin wanted me to send him? Yes,” CC replied.

“These are your words?” Schnack said.

“Not my words,” CC said.

“You didn’t write this?” Schnack said.

“I did,” CC said. 

She explained Rodhouse was at work and sent a message on Snapchat saying, “This is what I want you to send to me on my business (phone).”

“Where’s that message?” Schnack said.

After searching through copies of text messages, CC said she couldn’t find it.

“But he sent it to you, even though we don’t see it anywhere?” Schnack said. 

After CC said yes, Schnack said, “You expect us to believe that?”

CC eventually admitted on the stand to four sexual encounters with her children. She later admitted she had sexual encounters with family pets on three occasions in their home, with the last one happening about two years ago. She didn’t specify which pets. 

“I knew it wasn’t OK,” she said.