Court Opinion

ID: 9741591
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:58:41.01767+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:24.896979
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HOLDRIDGE, dissenting: As the majority points out, defendant’s trial judge never knew that he wore a stun belt during trial. Therein lies the problem. In People v. Martinez, 347 Ill. App. 3d 1001 (2004), the evidence revealed that the Will County sheriff had a policy of requiring all felony defendants to wear an electronic security belt in the courtroom. The trial judge deferred to this policy, stating that “he did not want to disrupt the sheriff’s standard operating procedure.” Martinez, 347 Ill. App. 3d at 1003. Although the instant judge did not knowingly defer to the sheriff’s policy, the same concerns are triggered when law enforcement personnel require a defendant to wear an electronic security belt without the judge’s knowledge. Our supreme court has declared that trial judges must control their own courtroom procedures in regards to security belts. See People v. Allen, 222 Ill. 2d 340 (2006). Such control involves conducting a hearing under People v. Boose, 66 Ill. 2d 261 (1977). As I have stated elsewhere (see People v. Johnson, 356 Ill. App. 3d 208 (2005); People v. Johnson, 387 Ill. App. 3d 768, 773 (2009) (Hold-ridge, J., dissenting)), I believe the appropriate remedy in cases of this type is to remand for a retrospective Boose hearing. This approach affords judges the opportunity to fix improprieties, where possible, without undoing an entire trial. Accordingly, I disagree with the majority’s decision to reverse defendant’s conviction outright and remand for a new trial. I would remand with instructions for the circuit court to conduct a hearing and determine whether it was necessary, under the factors outlined in Boose, for this defendant to wear an electronic security belt at trial.