Court Opinion

ID: 9737833
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:35:18.357571+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:01.709305
License: Public Domain

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE MILLS, dissenting: This is a close one. But the taproot question is this: How does this court on appeal test the trial court’s action? I think the answer is clear. The standard of review for this court to apply is whether the trial court’s denial of the motion to suppress was “manifestly erroneous.” People v. Conner (1979), 78 Ill. 2d 525, 532, 401 N.E.2d 513, 516-17; People v. Williams (1974), 57 Ill. 2d 239, 246, 311 N.E.2d 681, 685, cert. denied (1974), 419 U.S. 1026, 42 L. Ed. 2d 302, 95 S. Ct. 506. As to the facts, looking for “Any and all items of stolen railroad property such as jacks, forks, switch brooms, firearms” behind a television set in a cluttered building such as here hardly shocks my sensibilities. I consider this as classic Coolidge. Evidence was everywhere: on floors, in the bathtub, in cars on the property, in the ceiling, in the sink, on shelves, under cabinets, under the couch, inside a doll, inside a crock, and both behind and inside the T.V. The lantern batteries, for instance, were small enough to be concealed almost anywhere and were, in fact, found in a variety of places throughout the residence. Also, some items of railroad property were found immediately adjacent to the T.V., and a weapon was found behind it. Furthermore, I suggest that it would be highly unusual that anyone would have 15 or 16 CB units stuffed into the back of a semi-gutted television set with cords and wires dangling out of it. To my view, this amounted to “plain view.” The reasonableness of police officers’ conduct must be judged by the particular circumstances of the situation. Those presented by the record here satisfy me that their actions were indeed reasonable and in no way offended the mandates of Coolidge. Now, as to “probable cause” to believe the items were contraband, the trial judge carefully and specifically enumerated the factors he found in this regard: the CB radios were found in an inoperative T.V. set; 15 or 16 of them was more than a run-of-the-mill homeowner would normally possess; no evidence indicated that the defendant was a dealer in citizen band radios; and there were numbers etched on the cases of the CB’s “which would identify them as belonging to some other person, someone whose name began with P.” The trial judge then proceeded to find “probable cause.” Did the trial judge’s denial of the motion to suppress violate the standard on review? Was his action “manifestly erroneous?” It was not. I would affirm. I dissent.