Court Opinion

ID: 9740923
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:45:02.159405+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:21.087704
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COOK, specially concurring: If someone leases a vehicle from a leasing company, then loans that vehicle to one of his relatives for a trip from Chicago to Rantoul, I would conclude the relative has a possessory interest in the vehicle sufficient to afford standing for a motion to suppress. The fact the relative is not licensed to drive might be relevant on the issue whether the lessee actually loaned out the vehicle, but is not relevant on the relative’s possessory interest. It is possible for an unlicensed driver to possess a motor vehicle, just as it is possible for an unlicensed driver to own a motor vehicle. Even where a vehicle is operated illegally the operator may have a possessory interest in the vehicle. Rakas held that a mere passenger in a car has no legitimate expectation of privacy in the glove compartment or the area under the seat. Straight here was driving the vehicle at the time of the stop, but, even viewing the facts most favorably to him, it would appear that he was simply a passenger who had taken over driving duties for McCoy. On these facts, under Rakas, Straight had no standing to object to a search of the engine compartment, the console, or the backseat. Cf. Taylor, 245 Ill. App. 3d at 611, 614 N.E.2d at 1278 (passenger on trip from Illinois to Colorado had standing). It may have been possible for McCoy to establish standing, but he failed to do so. Straight told Newman that McCoy had acquired the vehicle from McCoy’s kinfolk and used it to pick up Straight and Davis at their homes in Chicago. McCoy told Newman, however, that he had picked up Straight and Davis in his own Cadillac. When Newman told McCoy what Straight and Davis had said, McCoy said he wanted to speak with his attorney. It is defendant’s burden to establish standing. Defendant is not thereby forced to give up his fifth amendment rights; the State cannot use a defendant’s admissions from a suppression hearing at trial. (People v. Morrison (1988), 178 Ill. App. 3d 76, 82-83, 532 N.E.2d 1077, 1081-82.) McCoy’s motion to suppress failed to allege that he had any possessory interest in the vehicle, and the above evidence was insufficient to sustain his burden.