Court Opinion

ID: 9705481
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:08:47.273549+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:11.759771
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE JIGANTI, dissenting: Although probable cause determinations do not require that the arresting officers have sufficient evidence for a conviction, it is necessary that there be more than a mere suspicion. (People v. Moody (1983) , 94 Ill. 2d 1, 7, 445 N.E.2d 275.) The facts in this case may have raised a suspicion that the defendant committed the robbery; however, they did not give rise to probable cause. For this reason,. I must respectfully dissent. The only information known to the officers at the time they apprehended the defendant was that two of the suspects were black males approximately 5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall, with an average build, and between the ages of 17 and 20 years old. The officers also knew that a third suspect was a black male, 5 feet 8 inches tall and approximately 145 pounds. Additionally, the officers received a statement from a citizen informant who stated that he saw the defendant in the vicinity of the store. As to the physical characteristics known by the officers, the majority attempts to diminish the obvious generality of these characteristics by pointing out that they exclude very old and very fat black males. I do not agree that the exclusion of old and fat black males reduces the large percentage of black males to whom these physical attributes could apply. Regarding the citizen informant’s statement to the police that he saw the defendant in the “vicinity” of the Saxon paint store, did vicinity mean outside the store; within the same shopping center; or on a nearby street? The arresting officers did not speak with the informant and consequently were never able to ascertain what was meant by the “vicinity” of the Saxon paint store. Based upon these facts alone, defendant was arrested without a warrant. It seems obvious to me that these facts had merely cast suspicion on the defendant and did not rise to the level of probable cause. As for the subsequent confession given by the defendant at the police station, I disagree that there was sufficient attenuation between the illegal arrest and confession so as to remove the taint from the illegal arrest. Courts will examine four factors in determining whether the connection between the illegal arrest and the tainted evidence has become so attenuated as to dissipate the taint. These factors include the temporal proximity of the illegality to the evidence obtained; the presence of the intervening circumstances; the purpose and flagrancy of the policemen’s conduct; and the presence or absence of Miranda warnings. (Brown v. Illinois (1975), 422 U.S. 590, 603-04, 45 L. Ed. 2d 416, 427, 95 S. Ct. 2254, 2261-62.) Regarding the temporal proximity, although there is no testimony as to the exact time between the arrest and subsequent confession, it appears as if the defendant made his confession within a few hours after arriving at the police station. More importantly, no intervening event of significance occurred' between that time. As for the fact that the defendant was given his Miranda warnings, these warnings, by themselves, do not attenuate the taint of an unconstitutional arrest. (Brown v. Illinois (1975), 422 U.S. 590, 602, 45 L. Ed. 2d 416, 426, 95 S. Ct. 2254, 2261.) The final factor, the purpose and flagrancy of the police conduct, is not present in this case; however, the protection of the fourth amendment does not turn on a talismanic test. (People v. Dortch (1982), 109 Ill. App. 3d 761, 765, 441 N.E.2d 100, citing Brown v. Illinois (1975), 422 U.S. 590, 45 L. Ed. 2d 416, 95 S. Ct. 2254.) No single factor is dispositive. (Brown v. Illinois (1975), 422 U.S. 590, 603, 45 L. Ed. 2d 416, 427, 95 S. Ct. 2254, 2261.) In the instant case, the record does not contain any evidence to support a finding that the taint from the illegal arrest was dissipated. Consequently, I believe that it was error not to suppress this evidence.