Court Opinion

ID: 9729841
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:50:08.706345+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:01.591829
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE GREEN, concurring: I agree to reverse both judgments appealed but would do so upon the theory of collateral estoppel. I do not consider the probation revocation proceedings to have placed defendant in jeopardy. I do not agree that the failure of the State to present evidence as to the alleged August 2, 1977, sale prevented that issue from being litigated at the first revocation hearing. The petition to revoke alleged that defendant had committed both sales, and neither allegation was ever withdrawn. A party cannot present issues for a court’s determination “and then avoid the effect of an estoppel by withholding proof thereof.” (50 C.J.S. Judgments §729, at 218 (1947).) The trier of fact here found that defendant did not make the July 20, 1977, sale. As no evidence was presented concerning the August 2 sale, the trier of fact would reasonably have had to conclude that the defendant did not make that sale either. The Ashe court described the collateral estoppel doctrine in criminal cases as one that should be applied realistically, rationally, and without the very technical interpretation of the past. It ruled that in a criminal case, when a general verdict of acquittal could not have been made by a rational jury without making a certain factual finding, the State is estopped in subsequent proceedings to dispute that finding. The same rule would obviously apply to factual determinations reasonably required to have been made in bench trials. Here, theoretically and under the technical theories rejected by Ashe, the court could have concluded that the defendant committed the August 2 sale but nevertheless refused to revoke the probation. As I have stated, however, such a determination could not reasonably have been made when no evidence was presented upon the subject. By analogy to the application of collateral estoppel in Ashe, the State is also estopped here to later claim that defendant made that sale. The distinction between mere application of the doctrine of collateral estoppel and application of the full doctrine of double jeopardy is important. The collateral estoppel doctrine prevents the State from relitigating a factual issue upon which it has received an adverse determination. Double jeopardy principles prevent relitigation of an issue even in the event of an original determination favorable to the State. In People v. Kondo (1977), 51 Ill. App. 3d 874, 876, 366 N.E.2d 990, 991, the court said, “[T]he State may both seek to revoke a defendant’s probation and seek a criminal conviction based on the same conduct.” However, if a proceeding to revoke probation places the defendant in jeopardy as to the conduct for which revocation is sought, the State could not later charge him in a criminal proceeding with the conduct for which revocation was sought even if that conduct was proved at the revocation hearing. A serious question would also be presented as to whether a defendant’s probation could be revoked because of the conviction of a crime while on probation. The proceedings in which he was convicted would have placed him in jeopardy, and the revocation proceedings based upon the conviction could arguably be held to place him in jeopardy a second time. Had the supreme court considered a probation revocation ' proceeding to place a defendant in jeopardy, it would have decided Grayson on the theory of double jeopardy and would not have relied on the then recent doctrine of collateral estoppel as defined by Ashe.