Court Opinion

ID: 9523122
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:36:15.30091+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:04:35.108347
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE MYERSCOUGH, dissenting: I respectfully dissent. I agree with the majority’s finding that “[djefendant was not apprehended for possession of narcotics *** when she was first asked to open her mouth.” (Emphasis added.) 337 Ill. App. 3d at 823. However, the reason she was asked to open her mouth was because the officer suspected she may be hiding drugs. Brian Gallagher, a police officer with the City of Champaign, testified that he asked defendant to open her mouth because, in his experience, narcotics buyers will often hide drugs in their mouths so that they may be easily destroyed to prevent their discovery by police. Gallagher testified that he did not “command” defendant to open her mouth. He “asked” her. He testified, however, that after defendant swallowed, opened her mouth, and he observed the substance, he had probable cause to believe there were narcotics in her mouth. He then “ordered” her to stick her tongue out and, at that point, she was apprehended. Miller, 253 Ill. App. 3d at 1036, 628 N.E.2d at 897 (in the context of the obstruction-of-justice statute, the established, plain, and ordinary meaning of apprehension is a seizure, taking, or arrest of a person on a criminal charge). A seizure occurs when, by means of physical force or show of authority, a person’s freedom of movement is restrained. People v. Brownlee, 186 Ill. 2d 501, 517, 713 N.E.2d 556, 564 (1999). When considering whether a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave, the court will look at the totality of the circumstances surrounding the incident. United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554, 64 L. Ed. 2d 497, 509, 100 S. Ct. 1870, 1877 (1980). When defendant stuck out her tongue, Gallagher observed the substance on her tongue. She then swallowed, and the substance was gone. I find that, under the circumstances here, defendant would not have felt that she was free to leave and, therefore, she had been apprehended at the time she swallowed the substance in her mouth. She, therefore, could not have swallowed the substance to prevent her apprehension because that event had already taken place. Accordingly, I conclude that the State failed to prove an essential element of the offense as charged. Because defendant was not proved guilty of the offense as charged, I would reverse.