Court Opinion

ID: 9522679
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:30:44.542248+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:03:36.799733
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE DOYLE, dissenting: I respectfully dissent. As the majority decision correctly recognizes, the only issue before us is whether defendant presented a prima facie case that the arresting officer did not have reasonable grounds to believe that he was driving under the influence of alcohol. The trial court found that there was probable cause for stopping defendant’s vehicle, and that finding is not challenged here. The majority takes the position that defendant’s testimony that he drove correctly for a distance of several blocks in itself constitutes a prima facie showing that the officer had no reasonable basis for believing him to be under the influence, even though defendant did not deny that he was under the influence or present any other evidence on the subject. I disagree. Prima facie evidence is that evidence sufficient to establish a fact and which will remain sufficient if unrebutted. (People v. Sanders (1987), 155 Ill. App. 3d 759, 764.) Erratic driving may be some evidence of driving under the influence but would not, in itself, constitute prima facie proof of that offense. Conversely, driving without error for several blocks may be, as the majority comments, “some evidence” of sobriety, but it does not, in my view, rise to the level of a prima facie showing sufficient to shift the burden of proof to the State. See People v. Knoblett, 179 Ill. App. 3d 1015.