Opinion ID: 2994244
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Emergency Exception

Text: Finally, Kincaid contends that Stelivan lacked probable cause to arrest Kincaid because the criminal trespass statute decriminalizes an otherwise illegal entry made under emergency circumstances. According to Kincaid, a reasonable person would consider Kincaid’s situation to be an emergency, and Stelivan could not have reasonably believed that Kincaid was committing a crime by entering Childress’s property and should not have arrested him for doing so. However, Kincaid failed to raise this issue in his motion to suppress or before the district court at its hearing on the motion, and he has forfeited his right to appeal this issue. Therefore, we review only for plain error. See United States v. Brookins, 52 F.3d 615, 623 (7th Cir. 1995); United States v. Clark, 943 F.2d 775, 784 (7th Cir. 1991). Plain error review allows us to correct only ’particularly egregious errors’ for the purposes of preventing a miscarriage of justice. United States v. Franklin, 197 F.3d 266, 270 (7th Cir. 1999) (citation omitted). Section (f) of the Illinois criminal trespass to land statute decriminalizes an otherwise illegal entry onto property when a person enters for emergency purposes. 720 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/21-3(f). An emergency is defined as a condition or circumstance in which an individual is or is reasonably believed to be in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or in which property is or is reasonably believed to be in imminent danger of damage or destruction. Id. Kincaid claims that because his car had stalled, it was in imminent danger of damage or destruction had he left it in the street. He argues that a reasonable person would find that he entered Childress’s property under emergency circumstances and was not committing a crime by entering the property. Kincaid claims that he addressed the question of emergency in his motion to suppress and at the hearing at which this motion was considered. In support of this contention, Kincaid notes that he claimed, in his motion, that Stelivan could not have concluded that he was committing trespassing within the meaning and purpose of the statute, which, he claims, incorporates by reference the argument for emergency situations. In addition, Kincaid notes that he argued that the arrest was made because of a mistake of law, which mistake Kincaid now claims was the failure to consider whether the emergency circumstances exception applies. Despite his contention that these broad statements of law incorporate by reference the emergency exception to criminal trespass, Kincaid has forfeited this argument by failing to raise it in his motion to suppress. In his motion to suppress, Kincaid never indicated that he felt that his situation constituted an emergency, and at the motion hearing, Kincaid never claimed, or even mentioned, that he felt that his car stalling was an emergency or that there was any imminent risk of damage to his vehicle. Although Kincaid claimed that Stelivan made a mistake of law in making a custodial arrest, he failed to articulate on what basis a mistake of law was made, either by mentioning that Stelivan failed to consider the emergency exception or by citing the relevant statutory section, 720 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/21-3(f). In addition, although he also failed to raise the issue of notice in his motion to suppress, Kincaid specifically requested the district court allow him to raise these new arguments at the motion hearing. However, he failed to request leave at the motion hearing to argue that the emergency exception applied. We insist that a party must raise and develop an argument before the district court or in its motions to provide the district court with an opportunity to consider all matters before it. See, e.g., United States v. Hook, 195 F.3d 299, 310 (7th Cir. 1999). By failing to focus the court on this issue of emergency, Kincaid deprived the court, which studiously considered all matters raised before it, of this opportunity. For this reason, we deem this issue forfeited, and we review only for plain error. Illinois courts provide no guidance on the question of whether a typical automobile breakdown constitutes an emergency within the meaning of 5/21-3(f), so we must determine whether a miscarriage of justice results if we affirm the conclusion of the district court. Certainly, reasonable people may believe that in a break-down circumstance, automobile owners will fear that their car is in imminent danger of damage or destruction if it remains on the road. Nonetheless, the facts and circumstances surrounding this case fail to convince us that a reasonable person would find that the circumstances before us constitute such an emergency. First, Kincaid’s car stalled between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., at an hour when traffic on a residential side street would not constitute an imminent danger to Kincaid’s vehicle. Second, Kincaid has provided no evidence that there was no street parking available. In fact, the evidence that Kincaid and Stelivan were able to move the car onto the street after failing to start it suggests that street parking spaces existed at the time Kincaid’s car stalled. In the face of these circumstances, we believe it reasonable that an arresting officer would not consider the situation to be an emergency. Therefore, we find no plain error in the district court’s determination that Stelivan had probable cause to perform a custodial arrest.