People v. Jones

154 N.E.2d 875, 20 Ill. App. 2d 63, 1958 Ill. App. LEXIS 506
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 29, 1958
DocketGen. Nos. 47,505, 47,506
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 154 N.E.2d 875 (People v. Jones) 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. Jones, 154 N.E.2d 875, 20 Ill. App. 2d 63, 1958 Ill. App. LEXIS 506 (Ill. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE FRIEND

delivered the opinion of the court.

Two writs of error to the Criminal Court of Cook Connty prosecuted by the People of the State of Illinois and here consolidated for hearing present for review the records and orders of the Criminal Court entered November 1, 1957 quashing two separate indictments charging defendants in error jointly in Gen. No. 47,505, and defendant in error Willard Jones individually in case No. 47,506, with unlawful possession of certain narcotic drugs, in violation of sections 2 and 23 of the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act of 1935, as amended (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1955, ch. 38, div. I, Criminal Code, secs. 192.2 and 192.23), which deal with the unlawful possession of narcotic drugs and prescribe the punishment therefor.

It appears that in the March term 1957 the grand jury of the Criminal Court of Cook County returned a true bill against Helen and Willard Jones charging them with unlawfully, wilfully and knowingly possessing and having under their control on December 10, 1956 in Cook County a “large amount, to-wit: thirteen packages (the exact quantity of which is unknown to said Grand Jurors) of a certain narcotic drug, to-wit: opium, that is to say, heroin, contrary to the Statute, and against the peace and dignity of the same People of the State of Illinois.” The same grand jury also returned a true bill against Willard Jones charging him with unlawfully, wilfully and knowingly possessing large quantities of opium and cannabis, sometimes called marijuana, contrary to the statute. The true bills were endorsed by the foreman of the grand jury and designated the witnesses who appeared before that inquisitorial body as Police Officers George Sims and James Lannon.

Thereafter, following pleas of not guilty, defendants filed their motion to quash both indictments, together with an affidavit in support of their motion signed by their attorney and sworn to by both defendants, in which it was alleged in substance that on December 10, 1956 a search warrant issued in cause No. 56 MC 50 321 in the Municipal Court of Chicago authorizing police officers of the city to search the third floor apartment on the south side of the building known as 5108 Kimbark Avenue in Chicago, and commanding the officers to bring before the court a narcotic drug known as heroin, the property of Curtis Jones; and that on the same day in cause No. 56 MC 50 331 in the same court another search warrant issued authorizing city police officers to search the third floor apartment on the south side of the building known as 4656 South Ellis Avenue in Chicago and likewise instructing the officers to bring before the court a narcotic drug known as heroin, also the property of Curtis Jones; that the police officers executed the search warrants, seized a quantity of heroin and returned it to the Municipal Court of Chicago, in addition to a quantity of marijuana; that as a result of these searches and seizures defendants Helen and "Willard Jones, owners of both premises, were arrested, and thereafter, upon in-formations filed by the State’s attorney, were prosecuted in the Municipal Court for unlawful possession of the narcotics seized.

In their motion to quash these indictments defendants alleged that they were arraigned in the Municipal Court, pleaded not guilty and were tried, the trial commencing February 27, 1957; that they moved to quash the search warrants, and to suppress the evidence seized thereunder and to be used against them; that the court sustained their motion to quash and to suppress the evidence; and that thereupon the State’s attorney on March 27, 1957 declined to prosecute further; instead, he moved for, and the court entered, a nolle proseguí to each of the informations.

Immediately following the adverse rulings in the proceedings in the Municipal Court, the State’s attorney appeared before the grand jurors in the Criminal Court of Cook County and presented to them the evidence secured under the same search warrants quashed by the Municipal Court and suppressed by that court, as well as the testimony of the same police officers who made the -search and seizure. At the conclusion of the State’s attorney’s presentation, the grand jurors returned the indictments here under consideration. In the Criminal Court both defendants entered pleas of not guilty and filed their motions to quash both indictments. Attached as exhibits to their motion in the Criminal Court were their motions in the Municipal Court to quash the search warrants in question, the order sustaining their motions, as well as the complaints for search warrants issued by the Municipal Court, the informations upon which defendants were brought to trial, and the official memorandums of half sheets of the Municipal Court in the Municipal Court proceedings.

It appears that upon the hearing of defendants’ motion to quash the search warrants and suppress the evidence in the Municipal Court, a transcript of which was attached as an exhibit to the People’s answer, Officers George Sims and James Lannon were called as witnesses for the People and in substance testified that they and other officers participated in the search and seizure, that they executed the search warrants and made the arrests in the two south-side buildings. The trial judge held the action of the Municipal Court in quashing the search warrants to be res judicata and binding on the Criminal Court, and the testimony and evidence before the Criminal Court to be incompetent.

As ground for reversal it is first urged by the People that the searches and seizures were reasonable and therefore constitutional because conducted under then valid search warrants. The validity of the warrants is not here for review; the Municipal Court held them to be invalid, and we must regard its order as final.

It is next contended that entry of the nolle proseguís in the Municipal Court did not bar prosecution for the same offenses in the Criminal Court; that recourse by the prosecution to a court of concurrent jurisdiction did not effect a change of venue in favor of the People in violation of law; and that the entry of the orders quashing the search warrants and suppressing the evidence in the Municipal Court “neither enjoined the criminal court from determining anew the question of illegal search and seizure, either upon a motion to suppress or upon a motion to quash, on the ground of res judicata, nor proscribe introduction of the evidence in question to and its consideration by the grand jury.” It was held in People v. Watson, 394 Ill. 177 (cert. denied 329 U. S. 769), that a nolle prosequi is not a final disposition of a case and if entered before jeopardy is attached, i. e., before the accused has been arraigned and a jury impaneled and sworn, it does not operate as an acquittal so as to prevent a subsequent prosecution for the same offense; but whether the same evidence obtained through the illegal search and seizure in the Municipal Court proceedings and the testimony of the same officers who made the search and seizure can be used in procuring indictments in the Criminal Court after a nolle prosequi has been requested by the People and granted, presents a different question and constitutes the principal issue in this proceeding.

In People v. Moore, 410 Ill. 241, an order had been entered by a county court in a criminal proceeding against defendant holding a search warrant void and suppressing the use of property taken under color and authority of the warrant, and ordering the return of the property to the owners.

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Related

The PEOPLE v. Jones
166 N.E.2d 1 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1960)

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Bluebook (online)
154 N.E.2d 875, 20 Ill. App. 2d 63, 1958 Ill. App. LEXIS 506, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-jones-illappct-1958.