Opinion ID: 2148470
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Level of Individualized Suspicion Present

Text: Next, we evaluate whether the officers had reasonable suspicion that Bircher had violated her probation order so that the search was justified at its inception under the fourth amendment. Reasonable suspicion exists when articulable facts which, taken together with the rational inferences from those facts,    warrant a reasonably prudent officer to investigate further. Maryland v. Buie, 494 U.S. 325, 334, 110 S.Ct. 1093, 1098, 108 L.Ed.2d 276, 286 (1990); see People v. Scott, 148 Ill.2d 479, 503, 171 Ill.Dec. 365, 594 N.E.2d 217 (1992). Reasonable suspicion is a less stringent standard than probable cause ( Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 330, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 2416, 110 L.Ed.2d 301, 309 (1990)), but it requires more than a mere hunch on the part of the officer ( Scott, 148 Ill.2d at 503, 171 Ill.Dec. 365, 594 N.E.2d 217). An officer's good-faith, subjective belief that he or she has sufficient suspicion to justify the intrusion alone is inadequate to satisfy the objective reasonable suspicion standard. Terry, 392 U.S. at 22, 88 S.Ct. at 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d at 906. In the present case, the officers decided to go to the motel on July 14 because Bircher's relatives told Officer Goodwin that Bircher was no longer living at the Charleston apartment and that she was staying with defendant at a specific Mattoon motel. If this constituted a change in residence, Bircher had violated the probation condition requiring her to give her probation officer notice of such a change. The officers were told at the motel's front desk that Bircher was staying in room 14. Upon answering the door to room 14, defendant admitted that Bircher was staying there. Officer Kelly identified an additional purpose to going to the motel: to check for the presence of weapons and/or drugs because she was staying with defendant. However, Kelly admitted at the motion hearing that he had no specific information from anyone that Mr. Lampitok was doing anything illegal. Instead, any notion that defendant could bring Bircher in contact with weapons or drugs appears to be based on a prior encounter. Kelly and defendant were at a scene where drugs and a syringe were present and arrests were made. Defendant was not arrested during this incident, but Kelly speculated that defendant appeared to be under the influence of something. On this basis, defendant's reputation precede[d] him. No testimony at the hearing otherwise potentially linked defendant or Bircher with drugs or weapons, and Bircher's conviction leading to her sentence of probation was for felony forgery rather than for a drug- or weapon-related offense. The State aptly summarizes this evidence as: (1) Bircher never informed her probation officer that she left the Charleston apartment, and (2) she was living with a suspected drug user. In United States v. Payne , the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that officers lacked reasonable suspicion where they conducted a parole [1] search given knowledge of defendant's two prior drug offense convictions and an anonymous, general tip, received six weeks earlier, that defendant possessed methamphetamines. Payne, 181 F.3d at 789-91. Specifically, the court concluded that the stale tip added little, and criminal history alone did not constitute reasonable suspicion. Payne, 181 F.3d at 790-91. In this case, the information the officers possessed that Bircher might be in the presence of drugs or weapons was even less substantial than knowledge of criminal history. The record indicates that one officer had a subjective perception that defendant was a drug user; there is no indication in the record that defendant was ever arrested for or convicted of a drug-related offense. Absolutely no evidence links Bircher directly with drugs or weapons. We conclude that the officers did not have reasonable suspicion that Bircher violated her probation order by possessing weapons or drugs merely because she cohabited with defendant, a suspected drug user. Individualized suspicion must be based at least in part on facts indicating possible present criminal activity. See Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2332, 76 L.Ed.2d 527, 548 (1983). The additional fact that defendant delayed opening the motel room door for an unspecified time period is insufficient to show that the officers had reasonable suspicion that Bircher possessed weapons or drugs. Thus, a search by the officers of room 14 for the sole purpose of discovering drugs and weapons was unreasonable, in violation of the fourth amendment under the facts of this case. A closer question is presented by whether officers had reasonable suspicion that Bircher was in violation of her probation order by changing residences without notifying her probation officer in advance. In evaluating whether reasonable suspicion exists, the court should consider the quality and content of information known to officers as well as the reliability of the source of the information. See White, 496 U.S. at 330, 110 S.Ct. at 2416, 110 L.Ed.2d at 309; People v. Ertl, 292 Ill.App.3d 863, 872-73, 226 Ill.Dec. 955, 686 N.E.2d 738 (1997). Certain factors can support a finding of reasonable suspicion, including corroboration of the tip through observation by officers ( White, 496 U.S. at 331, 110 S.Ct. at 2416-17, 110 L.Ed.2d at 309), inclusion of details in the tip ( United States v. Tucker, 305 F.3d 1193, 1201 (10th Cir.2002)), explanation of the basis of knowledge of the tip by the informant ( Tucker, 305 F.3d at 1201), and little passage of time between receiving tip and acting upon it by officers (see Payne, 181 F.3d at 790). Other factors can belie such a finding, including anonymity of the tipster ( People v. Carlson, 313 Ill.App.3d 447, 449-50, 246 Ill.Dec. 207, 729 N.E.2d 858 (2000); see also Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 274, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 1380, 146 L.Ed.2d 254, 262 (2000)), and absence of track record of supplying reliable information by known tipster ( People v. Lockhart, 311 Ill.App.3d 358, 362, 243 Ill.Dec. 941, 724 N.E.2d 540 (2000)). However, deficiency or uncertainty in the reliability of the informant can be compensated for by a strong level of detail and corroboration of the content of the tip, and vice versa. White, 496 U.S. at 330, 110 S.Ct. at 2416, 110 L.Ed.2d at 309; see Lockhart, 311 Ill. App.3d at 362, 243 Ill.Dec. 941, 724 N.E.2d 540. The officers received information from three sources that Bircher was staying at the motel rather than her listed Charleston apartment. First, Bircher's relatives, her roommates, told Goodwin that she was no longer living there and instead was staying with defendant at the U.S. Grant Motel in Mattoon. Though not anonymous, they had no track record of providing reliable information. In addition, Craig had an incentive to lie because he was violating his lease by allowing Bircher and defendant to reside there. However, as relatives and roommates, they had explained the source of their knowledge. In addition, the relatives gave the specific name of the motel at which Bircher was staying, which was corroborated before the search took place by the motel clerk and defendant himself, neither of whom had an incentive to answer as they did. The officers certainly had a reasonable suspicion prior to the search that Bircher was staying at the motel. However, at issue is whether Bircher had changed her residence from the Charleston apartment to room 14 because she would have been in violation of her probation order only if she had changed residences without giving prior notice to her probation officer. Thus, the officers needed to have reasonable suspicion that room 14 had become Bircher's residence. Again, two relatives of Bircher's had told one officer, Goodwin, that she no longer lived there and that she was staying with defendant at the U.S. Grant Motel in Mattoon. Kelly admitted at the suppression hearing that he did not have independent knowledge about the reliability of these relatives. The record does not indicate whether Goodwin knew that these relatives were also Bircher's roommates or that under his lease Craig had reason to convey an impression that he had no roommates given the imminent inspection by his landlord. We conclude that the officers reasonably decided to investigate further whether Bircher had in fact changed her residence because the statement that she had moved came from Bircher's relatives present at the Charleston apartment. Subsequently, both the motel clerk and defendant himself corroborated that Bircher had been staying at the motel as claimed by the relatives. Thus, we find that the officers had reasonable suspicion that Bircher had changed residences without providing prior notification, in violation of her probation order. See White, 496 U.S. at 331, 110 S.Ct. at 2416-17, 110 L.Ed.2d at 309; Tucker, 305 F.3d at 1201. At the inception of the search, the officers were constitutionally justified in searching room 14 to verify whether Bircher had in fact changed residences in violation of her probation order but not to look for weapons and drugs. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 19-20, 88 S.Ct. at 1879, 20 L.Ed.2d at 905.