People v. Kirvelaitis

734 N.E.2d 524, 315 Ill. App. 3d 667, 248 Ill. Dec. 596, 2000 Ill. App. LEXIS 672
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedAugust 9, 2000
Docket2-99-0859
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 734 N.E.2d 524 (People v. Kirvelaitis) 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. Kirvelaitis, 734 N.E.2d 524, 315 Ill. App. 3d 667, 248 Ill. Dec. 596, 2000 Ill. App. LEXIS 672 (Ill. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

JUSTICE GALASSO

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Vytenis E Kirvelaitis, was charged with two counts of driving while under the influence of alcohol (625 ILCS 5/11 — 501(a)(1), (a)(2) (West 1998)), and he was also ticketed for speeding (625 ILCS 5/11 — 601(b) (West 1998)). Defendant’s driving privileges were subsequently suspended, and he filed a petition to rescind the statutory summary suspension of his driving privileges. The trial court denied the petition and defendant appealed. On appeal, defendant argues that his suspension should be rescinded because the officer who arrested him was outside his jurisdiction at the time he arrested defendant, and the officer lacked any statutory authority to make the arrest outside the officer’s jurisdiction. We reverse.

At the hearing on the petition to rescind, Officer Jerry Symonds, a police officer with the Village of Woodridge in Du Page County, testified that he was on duty on May 23, 1999, at approximately 1:40 a.m. when he saw a car traveling.southbound on Lemont Road at a high rate of speed. Defendant was driving the car Officer Symonds observed, and Officer Symonds was outside of Woodridge when he saw defendant. Officer Symonds testified that defendant was “perhaps” in Wood-ridge at the time he first observed him. Specifically, Officer Symonds testified that he “[did not] know if [defendant] was in town or out of town. It was that close.” Officer Symonds watched as the car got closer to him, and he activated his radar when no other cars were around defendant’s car. At the time the radar was activated, defendant was not in any municipality.

The radar showed that defendant was driving 67 miles per hour, and the posted speed limit was 45 miles per hour. Officer Symonds made a U-turn, activated his emergency equipment, drove approximately 80 miles per hour to catch defendant, and eventually stopped defendant approximately a half a mile away in Cook County. After the stop, Officer Symonds notified his dispatch and conducted an investigation. Based on this investigation, Officer Symonds placed defendant under arrest for driving while under the influence of alcohol.

The trial court denied defendant’s petition and found that Officer Symonds properly arrested defendant. The court stated that, assuming defendant was outside Woodridge, Officer Symonds was acting as a private citizen when he arrested defendant for speeding, and Officer Symonds only made the arrest after he observed defendant traveling at a high rate of speed. The trial court noted that after making that observation Officer Symonds activated his radar to determine defendant’s precise speed. This timely appeal followed.

Defendant argues that Officer Symonds lacked the authority to arrest him because Officer Symonds was outside his jurisdiction at the time he made the arrest and the officer did not have any statutory authority to make the arrest outside his jurisdiction. The State contends that the arrest was a proper citizen’s arrest. Specifically, the State argues that the arrest was proper because Officer Symonds first observed defendant driving at a high rate of speed, an observation that a private citizen could make, and then used his radar to determine defendant’s precise speed. The State claims that an officer’s use of the powers of his office after observing criminal activity does not invalidate the arrest.

There are several bases upon which an officer may have jurisdiction to arrest a defendant. Section 7 — 4—7 of the Illinois Municipal Code (Municipal Code) (65 ILCS 5/7 — 4—7 (West 1998)) provides that a police district is “[t]he territory which is embraced within the corporate limits of adjoining municipalities within any county in this State.” Clearly, an officer has the authority to arrest a defendant within his own police district, and, under certain circumstances, an officer has the power to arrest a defendant when the defendant is outside the officer’s jurisdiction. For example, a police officer has the authority to arrest a defendant when the defendant is in a municipality that is in the same county as the officer’s jurisdiction. 65 ILCS 5/7 — 4—8 (West 1998); People v. Marino, 80 Ill. App. 3d 657, 661-62 (1980). In addition, a police officer may arrest a defendant if he is investigating an offense that occurred within the officer’s jurisdiction and a temporary investigation or arrest outside the officer’s jurisdiction is made pursuant to the initial investigation. 725 ILCS 5/107 — 4(a—3)(1) (West 1998). An officer also may make an arrest outside his jurisdiction if the officer, while on duty, becomes aware of the commission of a felony or misdemeanor violation under Illinois law. 725 ILCS 5/107— 4(a — 3) (2) (West 1998). Finally, an officer outside his jurisdiction may make an arrest as a private citizen. A private citizen may arrest another when the citizen has reasonable grounds to believe that an offense other than an ordinance violation has been committed. 725 ILCS 5/107 — 3 (West 1998).

Here, under section 7 — 4—7 of the Municipal Code, Officer Symonds would have the authority to arrest defendant in Woodridge, Officer Symonds’s jurisdiction. The testimony revealed that defendant was “perhaps” within Officer Symonds’s jurisdiction at the time the officer observed defendant driving at a high rate of speed. The trial court never ruled on whether defendant was within Woodridge at the time Officer Symonds observed him driving at a high rate of speed, and we do not believe, based upon the officer’s equivocal testimony, that this court can conclude that defendant was within Woodridge. Thus, we believe that Officer Symonds had no authority to arrest defendant based on an argument that defendant was within Woodridge.

The State argues that, under People v. Leinweber, 234 Ill. App. 3d 748 (1992), Officer Symonds did properly arrest defendant because Officer Symonds observed defendant in Woodridge. Leinweber provides that an officer may make an investigatory arrest outside the officer’s jurisdiction if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the defendant committed the offense within the officer’s jurisdiction. Leinweber, 234 Ill. App. 3d at 750. Here, in contrast to Leinweber, Officer Symonds did not testify that he believed defendant was in Woodridge at the time he observed defendant driving at a high rate of speed. Rather, Officer Symonds stated that he did not know whether defendant was in Woodridge or not. Thus, we believe that the State’s reliance on Leinweber lacks merit.

Under section 7 — 4—8 of the Municipal Code, Officer Symonds could have the authority to make an arrest outside his jurisdiction and in another municipality as long as the arrest is made in a municipality within the same county as Officer Symonds’s jurisdiction. See Marino, 80 Ill. App. 3d at 661-62 (sections 7 — 4—7 and 7 — 4—8 of the Municipal Code have been construed as extending the power of local police officers to adjoining municipalities that are within the same county). Here, Officer Symonds’s jurisdiction is in Woodridge, which is in Du Page County.

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Bluebook (online)
734 N.E.2d 524, 315 Ill. App. 3d 667, 248 Ill. Dec. 596, 2000 Ill. App. LEXIS 672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-kirvelaitis-illappct-2000.