People v. Campbell

328 N.E.2d 608, 28 Ill. App. 3d 480, 1975 Ill. App. LEXIS 2275
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 1, 1975
Docket72-35
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 328 N.E.2d 608 (People v. Campbell) 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
People v. Campbell, 328 N.E.2d 608, 28 Ill. App. 3d 480, 1975 Ill. App. LEXIS 2275 (Ill. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE JONES

delivered the opinion of the court:

After a jury trial in the circuit court of St. Clair County the defendant was convicted of the offense of theft over $150 and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than 1 nor more than 2 years. The defendant was represented by retained counsel.

We first consider the defendant’s contention that he was not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant, who was an elected official of the East Side Levee and Sanitary District, was accused of theft in that he exerted unauthorized control over funds in the amount of $420 which were the property of the sanitary district. The defendant admits that he did exert control over the funds in question but asserts that the evidence fails to establish that he possessed the intent to permanently deprive the sanitary district of the funds.

It is undisputed that the East Side Levee and Sanitary District entered into an agreement with the Village of Alorton, Illinois, in the fall of 1969. Pursuant to that agreement the Village of Alorton was to rent certain flood protection equipment from the sanitary district for a period of 43 days at a rate of $19.53 per day. The treasurer for the Village of Alorton wrote checks of $420 each on November 3, 1969, and December 4,1969, payable to the defendant. The checks were written on the Village Motor Fuel Tax Account and were intended to serve as payment for the rental of the equipment from the sanitary district. The check written on November 3, 1969, is the subject of the instant theft charge. Both checks were given to the defendant who subsequently cashed the checks at a grocery store. The defendant did not turn the funds over to the sanitary district.

In April 1970 an auditor from the Illinois Division of Highways audited the Village of Alorton’s Motor Fuel Tax Account. The auditor sent a letter to the clerk of the Village of Alorton calling to the clerk’s attention the “irregularity” of the two payments totaling $840 to the defendant. The payments were deemed irregular because the checks were made payable to an individual rather than to the East Side Levee and Sanitary District. The village clerk then sought verification from the sanitary district that the money in question had been received. A letter was then sent to the village clerk on the stationery of the East Side Levee and Sanitary District stating that $840 had been received from the Village of Alorton as payment for the rental of equipment during 1969.

In February 1971 the defendant told the mayor of Alorton that he wanted to return the $840 to the village. He requested that the village then write a check for $840 to the East Side Levee and Sanitary District. The mayor brought the matter up for consideration at a meeting of the village board on March 16, 1971. At that meeting the village board decided to accept the money from the defendant if it were returned. The defendant did give $840 to the mayor’s secretary in late March or early April 1971. The money was subsequently given to the village treasurer who on June 29, 1971, wrote a check for $840 to the East Side Levee and Sanitary District.

The defendant does not deny any of the above facts but maintains that he never had the intent to deprive the sanitary district permanently of the funds in question. He testified that when he received the check which was written on November 11, 1969, by the treasurer of the Village of Alorton he offered it to a female clerk in the sanitary district office. When she refused to accept the check, the defendant cashed the check at a grocery store. He allegedly offered the cash to somebody at tire sanitary district office, but that person refused to accept the cash. The defendant stated that he then put the money in an envelope and locked it in his desk drawer with the intention to return the cash at some later date. He allegedly forgot about the money in the drawer until he discovered it 6 or 7 months later. The defendant testified that in March 1971 he gave, the money to a female employee in the office of the mayor of Alorton. On June 23,1971, the defendant was indicted for the offense of theft.

The defendant contends that his conviction must be reversed because the State failed to prove the requisite intent. We disagree. It is well established that in a trial for theft the requisite mental state may be deduced by the trier of fact from the facts and circumstances surrounding the alleged criminal act. (People v. Heaton, 415 Ill. 43, 112 N.E.2d 131; People v. McClinton, 4 Ill.App.3d 253, 280 N.E.2d 795.) Whether a defendant who is accused of theft had tire felonious intent to permanently deprive the owner of the use or benefit of the stolen property is a question for the jury. (People v. Heaton; People v. Reans, 20 Ill. App.3d 1005, 313 N.E.2d 184.) The right to believe or disbelieve the testimony of a defendant as to the existence of the requisite felonious intent is the prerogative of the jury. (People v. Reans.) In the instant case we find that the circumstances of the defendant’s conduct justify the finding of the jury that the defendant possessed the intent to deprive the East Side Levee and Sanitary District of the funds in question. The defendant cashed the check in question and did not attempt to return the money to the Village of Alorton until more than 1 year had passed. He did not attempt to return the money until after an audit of the Village of Alortons Motor Fuel Tax Account disclosed the “irregularity” of the payments to the defendant. Under these circumstances the jury had the right to disbelieve the defendant’s testimony that he innocently put the money in his desk drawer and forgot about it. We find therefore that the evidence is not so unsatisfactory as to justify a reasonable doubt of guilt.

The defendant’s next contention is that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a change of venue. Defense counsel argued in the motion and at the hearing on the motion that the defendant could not receive a fair trial in St. Clair County because there had been a substantial amount of adverse pretrial publicity. Fifteen newspaper articles which had appeared in local newspapers and which discussed the defendant’s case were attached to the motion for a change of venue. Some of the articles were merely factual accounts of the status of the case. Nine of the articles, however, referred to the fact that the defendant had recently been convicted of another offense involving misconduct in office. The trial court denied the motion for a change of venue, accepting the prosecutor’s argument that voir dire examination should be conducted so that it could be determined whether an impartial jury could be empaneled.

Voir dire examination began on the afternoon of November 4, 1971, and was concluded the next day. The 13th potential juror called during voir dire was Judith Storment. She testified that there had been a great deal of discussion about the defendant’s case among the people who had been called for jury duty. Mrs. Storment further testified that many of the prospective jurors brought newspapers with them when they came to the courthouse in the mornings.

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Bluebook (online)
328 N.E.2d 608, 28 Ill. App. 3d 480, 1975 Ill. App. LEXIS 2275, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-campbell-illappct-1975.