In Re RS

418 N.E.2d 195, 93 Ill. App. 3d 941
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 12, 1981
Docket80-448
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 418 N.E.2d 195 (In Re RS) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re RS, 418 N.E.2d 195, 93 Ill. App. 3d 941 (Ill. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

93 Ill. App.3d 941 (1981)
418 N.E.2d 195

In re R.S., a Minor. — (THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Petitioner-Appellee,
v.
R.S., Respondent-Appellant.)

No. 80-448.

Illinois Appellate Court — Third District.

Opinion filed March 12, 1981.

*942 Robert A. Agostinelli and Michael Filipovic, both of State Appellate Defender's Office, of Ottawa, for appellant.

Thomas J. Homer, State's Attorney, of Lewistown (John X. Breslin and Gerry R. Arnold, both of State's Attorneys Appellate Service Commission, of counsel), for the People.

Judgment affirmed.

Mr. JUSTICE STOUDER delivered the opinion of the court:

R.S., a minor, appeals from an order of the circuit court of Fulton County adjudging him delinquent, making him a ward of the court, and committing him to the juvenile division of the Department of Corrections. The petition alleged the minor had burglarized two residential premises in Farmington, Illinois, and had stolen property with a value of under $150 from a Canton K-Mart store. The allegations were based in part on confessions made by R.S. during two custodial interrogations. Prior to the adjudication, the minor moved to suppress the confessions, claiming them to be fruits of an illegal arrest. The court denied the motion and found that R.S. had committed the two Farmington burglaries. Due to the lack of evidence, the court dismissed the theft count. The only issue presented on appeal is whether the May 1 confession was received in violation of the minor's fourth and fourteenth amendment rights. We find the confession was properly admitted.

On April 30, 1980, Canton police officer Ronald Pavely telephoned the Farmington police requesting them to "pick up" the minor for questioning in regard to an alleged theft at a Canton K-Mart store. No warrant for R.S.'s arrest had been issued. As Pavely related at the suppression hearing, his basis for making his request was "information that some batteries were taken from a closed-in area immediately to the west side of the [K-Mart] store [in Canton] and that those batteries had been taken to I. Borg and Sons in Peoria; and [R.S.] had received a check for those batteries." Approximately two hours after Farmington police had detained R.S., Pavely arrived and advised the minor of his Miranda rights. At the time he was picked up, R.S. apparently was doing nothing unusual. His two-hour detention took place in a jail cell. The minor said he understood his rights and desired to speak with Pavely. R.S. then implicated himself in an April 25 theft of several used batteries from the Canton K-Mart. Later that day, Pavely transferred R.S. to the Fulton County Jail. R.S., who was 16 years old at the time of the offense, was placed in the county jail, rather than in the Juvenile Detention Center because he told the police he was 17 years old. One day later in the afternoon of May 1, 1980, two Farmington police officers, Fred Winterroth and Rick Lewis, *943 removed R.S. from his cell and interrogated him in regard to a Farmington burglary. The minor, after receiving his Miranda warnings, confessed to two Farmington burglaries, at 90 W. Fort St. and 89 S. Wall St. The basis for the May 1 interrogation follows.

On April 25, 1980, Ethyl Robinson reported that her house, located at 90 W. Fort St., Farmington, had been burglarized. One of the items stolen was a mahogany mantel clock. In an apparently routine conversation on April 30, Winterroth asked Betty Rilea, a caseworker for the Department of Children and Family Services, whether she had observed the clock in a client's household. Rilea recalled she had seen a mantel clock fitting the description of the stolen one in the apartment of Ann Kurzan. On May 1, Winterroth, with Kurzan's consent, entered the apartment and examined the clock. He returned at approximately 12:40 p.m. that day with a search warrant to seize the clock. When Winterroth executed the warrant, Kurzan informed him she had received the clock from R.S., who also lived in the apartment. Winterroth then interrogated the minor that day at approximately 3 p.m. Following R.S.'s confession to the two burglaries, the Farmington police, armed with a second warrant to search R.S.'s (and Kurzan's) apartment, seized contraband stolen from 89 S. Wall St., the second burglarized premises.

The minor contends the circuit court erred in denying his motion to suppress the confessions because Pavely's instruction to the Farmington police was without probable cause; thus, the April 30 detention violated R.S.'s fourth and fourteenth amendment rights. Second, because he was arrested without probable cause, he contends the illegality of the arrest tainted the April 30 confession regardless of whether Miranda warnings were given. (Brown v. Illinois (1975), 422 U.S. 590, 45 L.Ed.2d 416, 95 S.Ct. 2254.) Third, the minor's argument concludes that, if the April 30 confession was unlawful, the subsequent May 1 confession is presumed likewise unlawful; therefore, that confession must also be suppressed. People v. Raddatz (1968), 91 Ill. App.2d 425, 235 N.E.2d 353.

• 1 There is no question the April 30 detention of R.S. by the Farmington police constituted an arrest for fourth amendment purposes. (See Dunaway v. New York (1979), 442 U.S. 200, 60 L.Ed.2d 824, 99 S.Ct. 2248.) Of course, fourth amendment guarantees apply equally to the States through the fourteenth amendment. (Mapp v. Ohio (1961), 367 U.S. 643, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081, 81 S.Ct. 1684.) Moreover, minors in juvenile delinquency proceedings receive the same fourth amendment protections as do their adult counterparts. (In re Marsh (1968), 40 Ill.2d 53, 237 N.E.2d 529.) One of those protections provides that statements made by an arrestee who was unlawfully seized may be excluded even if police had advised the arrestee of his Miranda rights. Brown v. Illinois (1975), 422 U.S. 590, 45 L.Ed.2d 416, 95 S.Ct. 2254.

*944 Upon reviewing the transcript of the suppression hearing, we are uncertain whether the Canton police, who instructed the Farmington police to apprehend R.S. (see United States v. Ventresca (1965), 380 U.S. 102, 13 L.Ed.2d 684, 85 S.Ct. 741), lacked probable cause to sustain the warrantless arrest, as the minor contends. We decline, however, to rule upon the propriety of the arrest because: (1) the circuit court dismissed the count based on the April 30 K-Mart confession which immediately followed the arrest; and (2) assuming, arguendo, that the Canton police acted without probable cause and hence, unlawfully arrested R.S., we find the May 1 confession to be untainted by the (assumed) illegality. Brown v. Illinois (1975), 422 U.S. 590, 45 L.Ed.2d 416, 95 S.Ct. 2254.

The United States Supreme Court in Brown attempted to clarify the interstice between the fourth and fifth amendments. There, following his admittedly illegal arrest, Brown confessed after being detained for less than two hours.

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Bluebook (online)
418 N.E.2d 195, 93 Ill. App. 3d 941, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-rs-illappct-1981.