Court Opinion

ID: 9542531
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:35:29.685817+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:14.482908
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE RYAN, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I dissent from that part of the opinion of this court which holds that the defendant’s right to a speedy trial was violated. I would affirm the appellate court in this case, which held that the trial court had no jurisdiction to consider or enter an order of discharge once an appeal from the contempt order had been filed. 151 111. App. 3d 966, 972-73. The opinion of this court finds that the circuit court retained jurisdiction to proceed with the criminal case, although the contempt order had been appealed, because the order appealed from was independent of and collateral to the case before the trial court. The assessment of the contempt order as being independent of and collateral to the criminal case is correct. However, as noted by the appellate court, the criminal case was not independent of the contempt proceeding. The State had answered ready for trial, but the defendant could not present his defense without the information the court ordered the State to produce, and the propriety of the court’s order on the State to produce had to be determined in the appeal from the contempt order. Thus, the criminal case was dependent on the outcome of the contempt proceeding, and the trial court should not have proceeded in the criminal case before the determination of the contempt issue. If, on review, it should be determined that the trial court was correct in ordering the State to produce, the defendant would then be entitled to receive the information sought and could then fashion his defense. If, however, the court, on review, would determine that the trial court was wrong in its production order, then the case would have to proceed without the information ordered produced, as the State was ready to do before the speedy-trial period had run. The court should not have entertained any order disposing of the criminal case until the contempt question had been resolved. Suppose this court were to hold that the trial court was wrong in entering its order to produce? Under the holding of this opinion, we would be faced with the anomaly of the defendant’s being discharged as a result of the State’s not having produced the information, although the State would have been correct in not complying with the production order. For the reasons stated, I would affirm the order of the appellate court, and I dissent from that portion of this court’s opinion resolving the speedy-trial issue. JUSTICE MILLER joins in this partial concurrence and partial dissent.