People v. Giokaris

611 N.E.2d 571, 243 Ill. App. 3d 37, 183 Ill. Dec. 308, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 482
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 2, 1993
DocketNo. 2-91-0836
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 611 N.E.2d 571 (People v. Giokaris) 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. Giokaris, 611 N.E.2d 571, 243 Ill. App. 3d 37, 183 Ill. Dec. 308, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 482 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

JUSTICE McLAREN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Demetrios Giokaris, was charged by indictment with five counts of theft and one count of attempted theft. Defendant filed a motion to dismiss based on his previous receipt of immunity from the State. Following argument, the trial court granted defendant’s motion. The State appeals, contending the dismissal was improper because it is possible to give a defendant limited immunity rather than full transactional immunity. We affirm.

On or about February 20, 1990, defendant was served a grand jury subpoena duces tecum requesting 46 of his patients’ records and other records. Following a hearing on defendant’s motion to quash based upon physician-patient privilege, Judge Bowman entered an order conferring immunity upon defendant at the prosecutor’s request. Judge Bowman’s order stated:

“[T]hat pursuant to the motion of the People under Ill. Rev. Stat. ch. 38, section 106, the petitioner is granted act of production immunity; further, the witness is hereby released from all liability to be prosecuted or punished on account of his act of producing the documents and the compelled testimonial statements that accompany the production of the described documents.”

Defendant subsequently appeared on June 22 and August 31, 1990, before the grand jury in response to the subpoena and immunity order, produced certain documents concerning his patients’ records and provided certain testimony as requested.

Defendant was charged by indictment with six offenses related to his grand jury appearance. Defendant was charged with three counts of theft: (1) relating to cashing checks for services allegedly not rendered but billed; (2) two counts of attempted theft, relating to issuing a bill for services allegedly not rendered, and allegedly double billing for services rendered; and (3) one count of conspiracy to commit theft for allegedly double billing for services rendered. Count VI, charging attempted theft for allegedly double billing for services rendered, was dismissed upon the State’s motion to nol-pros. Defendant’s motion to dismiss count IV charging attempted theft was granted on statute of limitations grounds.

Defendant eventually filed a motion to dismiss the remaining counts of the indictment on the ground that he had previously been granted transactional immunity, “the effect of which was to have released him from all liability to be prosecuted or punished on account of his production of his records and his testimony concerning his records produced in response to the subpoena.” The State responded that the decision in In re January 1986 Grand Jury No. 217 (1987), 155 Ill. App. 3d 445, recognized the possibility of giving defendant limited “production” immunity which would not release defendant from liability in this case.

After several discussions and formal arguments, the trial judge dismissed the indictment after determining (1) that the Illinois Supreme Court opinion People ex rel. Cruz v. Fitzgerald (1977), 66 Ill. 2d 546, controls over the decision of the Appellate Court, First District, in In re January 1986 Grand Jury No. 217 and (2) that even if the supreme court endorsed the In re January 1986 Grand Jury No. 217 case, the prosecutor’s questioning before the grand jury exceeded the limited questioning that might have been permitted. Consequently, dismissal of the indictment was proper. The State appeals, contending that In re January 1986 Grand Jury No. 217 applies here because it allows a grant of immunity limited to the testimonial aspects of the act of producing subpoenaed documents.

Specifically, the State contends that In re January 1986 Grand Jury No. 217 presented an issue essentially identical to the one in this case. The State contends that in that case defendants were granted “production immunity” for admitting that certain documents were in existence and for producing them, but not with respect to any crimes the documents might reveal were committed. Defendants continued to assert their fifth amendment privilege claiming that the limited grant of immunity did not adequately protect that privilege. The defendants were held in contempt for refusing to produce the subpoenaed documents. In discussing the scope of the immunity to which the defendants were entitled, the court first noted that article I, section 10, of the Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, §10) creates a privilege identical to the fifth amendment and that Illinois courts will follow decisions of the United States Supreme Court on identical State and Federal constitutional provisions. The court then noted that the scope of the fifth amendment protection afforded to voluntarily kept documents was analyzed in United States v. Doe (1984), 465 U.S. 605, 79 L. Ed. 2d 552, 104 S. Ct. 1237, wherein it was held that the contents of such documents were not privileged, but the act of producing the documents, i.e., admitting that the documents (1) exist, (2) are the documents sought by the subpoena, and (3) are in the defendant’s custody, may be privileged. The Appellate Court, First District, therefore concluded that in order to compel production of records the State was required to grant the defendants immunity for the act of producing the documents and compelled testimonial statements that accompany that production.

Like the defendant here, the defendants in In re January 1986 Grand Jury No. 217 argued that the transactional immunity granted by section 106 — 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 38, par. 106 — 1) cannot be transmuted into anything less than full transactional immunity. The court rejected this argument, stating:

“We agree with the Bernsteins that transactional immunity may not be transmuted into anything short of a prohibition against the prosecution for all offenses to which the compelled evidence relates. [Citations.] The compelled testimony for which the State has offered immunity is that the records sought exist, are in the Bernsteins’ possession, and are the records sought by the subpoena. The Bernsteins maintain that even this testimony ‘relates’ to the crimes of State income and sales tax fraud which the State seeks to pursue. We believe, however, that compelled testimony that the records exist and are in the Bernsteins’ possession does not relate to the crimes of tax fraud. Immunity for the act of production is narrow and protects the Bernsteins only from prosecution for any crimes which are revealed by the existence or possession of the requested records.
Moreover, pursuant to Doe, the contents of the records are not protected. Any evidence revealed by the contents of the documents which would aid the State in its prosecution can be used. The immunity order issued by the trial court is in accordance with these findings. We therefore find that the immunity order was proper and we refuse to issue the requested writ of prohibition sought by the Bernsteins prohibiting the State from continuing its investigation and prosecution.” (Emphasis added.) In re January 1986 Grand Jury No. 217, 155 Ill. App. 3d at 451.

Consequently, the State here contends that In re January 1986 Grand Jury No. 217 conclusively demonstrates that it is possible to grant the type of “production” immunity given to the defendant here without violating section 106 — 1 or the holding of People ex rel. Cruz v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Tricas
290 P.3d 255 (Nevada Supreme Court, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
611 N.E.2d 571, 243 Ill. App. 3d 37, 183 Ill. Dec. 308, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 482, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-giokaris-illappct-1993.