Court Opinion

ID: 9717712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:09:00.085643+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:54.795820
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE BARRY delivered the opinion of the court: The defendant, John A. Williams, was arrested on March 13, 1981, and charged with driving on a suspended license. During the defendant’s bench trial on August 17, 1981, the presiding judge, John Whitney, denied the State’s motion to admit into evidence an exhibit offered to prove that the defendant’s license was suspended on March 13, 1981. The trial judge incorrectly ruled that the prosecution had failed to show a chain of evidence in the handling of the certified documents presented by the State. A notice of appeal was filed by the State on September 16, 1981. However, the trial judge’s order certifying the question of the need for a chain of evidence to admit certain certified copies of the defendant’s driving license into evidence was not entered until September 25, 1981. Because of the filing of the trial judge’s order nine days after the notice of appeal was filed renders the September 16, 1981, notice of appeal a nullity, we will not entertain this appeal. There was no order from which to appeal at the time the notice of appeal was filed. Also, the State filed a notice of appeal rather than perfecting its appeal as an interlocutory appeal by seeking leave of this court, as required by Supreme Court Rule 308. 73 Ill. 2d R. 308. Furthermore, the State cannot bring this appeal pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 604(a)(1). (73 Ill. 2d R. 604(a)(1).) Despite suggested language in the State’s brief to the contrary, the erroneous ruling by Judge Whitney was clearly an evidentiary ruling and not a suppression order. For the foregoing reasons, this appeal is dismissed. Appeal dismissed. STOUDER, J., concurs.