Court Opinion

ID: 9533231
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:29:37.057078+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:58.010878
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH, dissenting: I dissent. I would reverse the judgment and remand the cause for a new trial. The striking similarity to the factual situation in People v. Townes (1982), 91 Ill. 2d 32, requires that we hold that there was here a violation of defendant’s fourth amendment rights. I do not agree that there was probable cause for detaining or seizing defendant. Obviously, the police did not think there was probable cause or they would not have waited for him to appear voluntarily. The facts enumerated in the majority opinion as the purported basis for probable cause fail to consider how many apartments shared the landing and the use of the dumpster and fail to mention that there was nothing which shows that defendant was in the area when the crime was committed. Obviously, the police did not believe that they had probable cause until defendant admitted handling the deceased boy’s clothing. Officer Johnson testified that after that admission defendant was no longer free to leave the station. The People’s contention that there was probable cause for defendant’s arrest was argued as an alternative to their basic contention that defendant’s presence at the police station was voluntary and that probable cause for his arrest arose soon after the interrogation began. Whether he had been “seized” at the time of the statement which provided probable cause for further detention must be determined from the totality of the circumstances. (United States v. Mendenhall (1980), 446 U.S. 544, 557, 64 L. Ed. 2d 497, 511, 100 S. Ct. 1870, 1879.) The question is whether the police had restrained defendant’s freedom, and the answer depends upon whether, in view of all of the circumstances, a reasonable man, innocent of any crime, would have considered himself under arrest. 446 U.S. 544, 554, 64 L. Ed. 2d 497, 509, 100 S. Ct. 1870, 1877. The record does not show how much time elapsed between defendant’s departure from his apartment with the police officers and the time when he made the statement about the clothing. Officer Johnson testified that defendant was picked up at “a little after three, 3:30.” Officer Johnson also testified that defendant admitted he had handled the clothes in the alley early in their second conversation at the police station, which was three or four minutes after their first conversation. The record does not show the length of their first conversation nor does it indicate how long it took the officers to travel to the police station with defendant. The record does disclose that, after the statement about the clothing, defendant was transported to another location for a polygraph test, which he refused to take, and upon his return to the station house, Officer Johnson saw him again at 6:30 that same evening. He talked to his grandmother sometime after 7 p.m. and to an assistant State’s Attorney at 9 p.m. The statement admitted into evidence was signed at 5 a.m. the next morning. Defendant was not told at any time that he was free to leave the interrogation room, nor, after the admission which gave rise to probable cause, was he told that he was no longer free to leave. It is difficult to believe that an individual who had spent several hours in an interrogation room with at least two police officers could have believed that he was free to leave unless he was told that he could. Applying the Mendenhall test, defendant could have reasonably considered himself under arrest from the beginning of the interrogation. This record shows that approximately 14 hours elapsed between the time that defendant voluntarily went to the police station and the time the statement was signed. This is the same violation of defendant’s fourth amendment rights that was present in Townes and requires reversal and remandment for a new trial. CLARK and SIMON, JJ., join in this dissent.