Court Opinion

ID: 9728508
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:09:42.799035+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:49.230546
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE BOWMAN, dissenting: The majority concludes today that a 911 hang-up call justifies a warrantless invasion of the private home where the call was placed. I cannot agree with this unprecedented expansion of the fourth amendment. For the following reasons, I would affirm the trial court but remand the matter for further consideration on whether defendant consented to the entry and search of his home. The fourth amendment to the United States Constitution protects "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” U.S. Const., amend. IV. Fundamental to individual security is our deep-rooted respect for the sanctity of the home. As this court has explained: "It is axiomatic that the physical entry of the home is the chief evil to which the wording of the fourth amendment is directed, and a principal protection against unnecessary intrusions into private dwellings is the warrant requirement imposed by the fourth amendment on agents of the government who seek to enter the home for purposes of search or arrest.” People v. Koniecki, 135 Ill. App. 3d 394, 398 (1985). The underlying command of the fourth amendment is that searches and seizures be reasonable. New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 337, 83 L. Ed. 2d 720, 731, 105 S. Ct. 733, 740 (1985). Warrantless searches are per se unreasonable (Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 357, 19 L. Ed. 2d 576, 585, 88 S. Ct. 507, 514 (1967)), unless a specifically established and well-defined exception applies (People v. Paudel, 244 Ill. App. 3d 931, 939 (1993)). For instance, the Supreme Court has recognized an "emergency” exception to the warrant requirement in instances where police officers "reasonably believe that a person within is in need of immediate aid.” Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 392, 57 L. Ed. 2d 290, 300, 98 S. Ct. 2408, 2413 (1978); see Paudel, 244 Ill. App. 3d at 939. The reasonableness of the belief that an emergency exists is determined by the entirety of all the circumstances known to the police at the time of entry. People v. Speer, 184 Ill. App. 3d 730, 739 (1989). The majority today holds that the police officers were excused from obtaining a warrant because it was reasonable for them to believe that someone within the residence was attempting to call 911 for help but was prevented from completing the call. According to the majority, the following factors establish the reasonableness of the officers’ belief that an emergency existed: (1) they knew that a 911 hang-up call was made from the residence; (2) they knew there was no answer on redial; (3) defendant should have answered the call from the 911 operator if there was no emergency; (4) defendant initially denied placing the call; and (5) defendant should have admitted immediately that he dialed 911 by mistake. I address the latter two factors first. According to the majority, defendant should not have initially denied to the police placing the call, and he should have admitted immediately that he dialed 911 by mistake. However, the police only became aware of these circumstances by speaking with defendant after they had entered the screened porch. As such, the propriety of using these circumstances depends on whether the police lawfully entered the porch. In other words, these circumstances are relevant to the majority’s analysis only if the officers’ initial entry on the porch was lawful. Realizing this, the majority concludes that the police lawfully entered the porch. Moreover, the proper inquiry is whether the police could lawfully enter the screened porch via the locked screen door. Under the circumstances of this case, I believe that the porch was a living area that constituted a part of defendant’s home for purposes of fourth amendment protection. See People v. White, 117 Ill. 2d 194 (1987). Parenthetically, I note that the majority’s reliance on People v. Arias, 179 Ill. App. 3d 890 (1989), is misplaced, because in Arias, unlike here, the door leading into the screened porch was not locked. See Arias, 179 Ill. App. 3d at 895-96. The majority’s analysis is therefore misguided, because it considers whether it was reasonable for the police to believe that someone within the home was in need of aid based on circumstances that came to the officers’ attention after they had already unlawfully entered the home. The proper analysis is whether it was reasonable for the officers to believe, before they unhooked the door to the screened porch, that someone within the home was in need of aid. Under this analysis, the officers’ beliefs were not reasonable. The only factors that arguably could support such a belief are the first three factors listed by the majority: that the officers knew that a 911 hang-up call was made from the home, that there was no answer on redial, and that defendant should have answered the call from the 911 operator if there was no emergency. In my opinion, these factors, by themselves, do not create a reasonable belief in a police officer that a person inside a home is in need of emergency aid. I do not believe that the fourth amendment, with its inherent emphasis on protecting the privacy of one’s home, permits police officers to enter a home based on nothing more than a 911 hang-up call. I would therefore affirm the trial court’s ruling. I further disagree with the majority’s conclusion that defendant consented, as a matter of law, to the search of his home. Assuming that the officers’ entry into defendant’s home was not a violation of the fourth amendment, I would remand this case for a further hearing on the issue of consent. I note that in such a proceeding the trial court would have to consider (1) whether defendant consented to the entry and search of his home; (2) whether the consent was voluntary; and (3) whether the consent was obtained by the exploitation of the prior illegal entry and search such that the consent "cannot be said to have been obtained by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the preliminary taint.” Koniecki, 135 Ill. App. 3d at 403; see People v. Vought, 174 Ill. App. 3d 563, 571-72 (1988). For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent.