Court Opinion

ID: 9516302
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:40:11.524457+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:33:37.262959
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE STOUDER dissenting: I agree with the majority of the court that the testimony regarding the breathalyzer test was incompetent and erroneously admitted by the trial court. However, the logic of the majority’s own reasoning impels me to believe that because of such error this case should be remanded for a new trial. In support of its reasoning that the error could not be deemed prejudicial, the majority assumes that the incompetent evidence was ignored by the trial court by applying the rule that in a trial before the court without a jury, it is presumed that the trial court has considered only competent evidence. The application of this rule, rather than supporting tire propriety of the judgment, has the opposite effect. If the trial court is presumed to have considered only competent evidence, then in this case the court would have to be presumed to have considered the evidence relating to the breathalyzer test, because pursuant to specific objection to such testimony the court found such testimony to be competent. Rather than overruling such objection the majority has found, and I agree, that such objection should have been sustained. If tire rule is applied as announced in the majority opinion we would reach the odd conclusion that the trial court is presumed to have disregarded evidence which it specifically believed to be competent, a conclusion with which I disagree. People v. Frenchwood, 28 Ill.2d 139, 190 N.E.2d 767, as well as other cases such as People v. Cox, 22 Ill.2d 534, 177 N.E.2d 211, People v. Richardson, 17 Ill.2d 253, 161 N.E.2d 268, People v. Grabowski, 12 Ill.2d 462, 147 N.E.2d 49, and People v. Knapp, 15 Ill.2d 450, 155 N.E.2d 565, where this rule is announced, are cases where no objection was made during the trial to evidence later claimed to be incompetent on appeal. I am unaware of any cases in which the trial court has been presumed to have ignored evidence which it specifically declared to be competent. Although there was other evidence from which it might be inferred that defendant was driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, it seems to me that in view of defendant’s claim that his erratic driving was the result of a head injury, the testimony regarding the breathalyzer test was not merely cumulative but nearly conclusive on the issue of intoxication. The nature and purpose of scientific evidence, as a breathalyzer test, is such that in many types of cases, such as this one, such evidence has an overwhelming effect and is deservedly considered probative evidence of a high order. Were incompetent evidence of a breathalyzer test presented in a trial before a jury, there is little doubt that such evidence would result in reversible error, and I see no reason for believing other than that the evidence had a similar prejudicial effect in this case. Accordingly, I believe the defendant should be granted a new trial.