An SIUC doctoral student pleaded not guilty Friday to a felony charge that he held a woman against her will.

Wilfred T. Reilly, 27, of Carbondale, was charged with unlawful restraint and battery April 18 after a woman told police that Reilly prevented her from leaving his Carbondale residence and ‘penetrated her vagina with one or more of his fingers without permission,’ according to court documents.

At a preliminary meeting Friday, Jackson County Judge Charles Grace found that the prosecution had presented enough evidence to validate the charges. A case management conference, where a trial date will be set, was scheduled for July 15 at 1 p.m.

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Kevin Banks, the officer in charge of the investigation, responded to examination and cross-examination questions during the preliminary hearing. Banks said Reilly and the woman met at a late-night party at Reilly’s house the night of the incident.

Thomas Mansfield, Reilly’s attorney, said he thought the woman’s case would prove to be inconsistent.

‘I think the evidence is going to show that she was so intoxicated and under the influence of drugs at the time she was making … these statements, that she didn’t give accurate information to the police,’ Mansfield said.

Banks said the woman reported that she was ‘blacking out’ from intoxication and confused about how to open the door to leave around 4 a.m. Then, Banks said, Reilly ‘bear hugged’ her, showed her how to unlock the door and then shut it with the two of them inside.

Early the next morning, Reilly’s neighbors discovered the woman standing in their yard wearing clothing that did not belong to her and called the police, Banks said.

Banks said during the police investigation of the incident, the woman said she was unsure if she knew Reilly from kickboxing class or Facebook, referred to Reilly by the wrong name and claimed to have been held captive for three days.

‘I’m not sure if they had any prior acquaintance or not.’ I know she said they did, but I haven’t really talked with Will (Reilly) about that,’ Mansfield said.

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Reilly, who is from Aurora, has been a student at SIUC for at least five years specializing in international relations, public law and public theory, and has a degree from the University of Illinois College of Law.’ His field of interest includes the strategic behavior of criminal offenders.

Reilly has been an instructor of undergraduate introductory political science at SIUC since 2007. He is not scheduled to teach either fall 2009 or spring 2010 classes at this time.