People v. Merar

2024 IL App (1st) 241512-U
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided October 29, 2024·No. 1-24-1512·Unpublished·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

2024 IL App (1st) 241512-U No. 1-24-1512B

Order filed October 29, 2024 Fifth Division

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of

Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Cook County.

)

v. ) No. 23 CR 4759 )

JULIE MERAR, ) Honorable ) Anjana Hansen,

Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge presiding.

JUSTICE NAVARRO delivered the judgment of the court.

Presiding Justice Mikva and Justice Oden Johnson concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: The trial court’s findings in its detention order were not against the manifest weight of the evidence, and the court’s decision to grant the State’s petition for pretrial detention was not an abuse of discretion. Affirmed.

¶2 Defendant, Julie Merar, appeals from an order under which the circuit court determined that defendant should be detained pending trial. Defendant argues on appeal that: (1) the State’s petition for pretrial detention did not give defendant reasonable notice; (2) the petition was not timely; (3) the State failed to tender copies of defendant’s criminal history, statements, or police

reports to defense counsel; and (4) the State failed to meet its burden that no condition of pretrial release could mitigate the threat she posed to the safety of a person or the community, or her willful flight. For the following reasons, we affirm.

¶3 I. BACKGOUND

¶4 Defendant was arrested on April 11, 2023, in Skokie, Illinois. She was charged with possession of a firearm without a Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card and unlawful vehicular invasion.

¶5 On April 12, 2023, a hearing was held in which the State explained the nature of the allegations as follows. The victim, Jason Sweas, worked as a physical therapist in Skokie, and defendant had been a patient of his since December 2022. During a January 2023 session, defendant made statements of a sexual nature to the victim. The victim advised defendant that her statements were inappropriate and that she would have to see another therapist if the conduct continued.

¶6 On April 4, 2023, defendant attended another physical therapy appointment, during which she made sexual advances towards the victim. The victim terminated the session and notified a supervisor. All future sessions with the defendant were cancelled, and defendant was informed of those cancellations on April 5, 2023.

¶7 On April 7, 2023, the victim began receiving text messages and emails from various numbers and addresses, referencing the physical therapy sessions with the victim. The messages were angry in tone and threatened retaliation through the victim’s employer.

¶8 On April 11, 2023, the victim was walking towards his car after work at approximately 3 p.m. The victim entered his car, heard banging on the front passenger side door, and saw defendant

standing outside the car pointing a gun at him. Defendant then opened the front passenger door, reached in with the gun, and pointed it directly at the victim.

¶9 The victim put the car in reverse and drove around the building. He reentered his place of work and called 9-1-1. Northbrook Police Department located defendant’s vehicle at approximately 4 p.m. in Northbrook, Illinois. Police officers recovered a firearm from defendant’s purse, with a round in the chamber. Additional ammunition was found inside her purse as well. Defendant did not have a valid FOID card.

¶ 10 Defendant had previously been charged in 2014 with stalking and cyberstalking, but the charges were reduced to electronic harassment and disorderly conduct. The victims in that case were a treating physician of defendant’s and the physician’s wife. Defendant was sentenced to 18 months of conditional discharge.

¶ 11 The State asked for electronic monitoring to be imposed on defendant as a condition of bail, but the trial court denied that request. The trial court set the bond amount at $200,000 and included a “no contact” condition of bond, whereby defendant could not have any contact with the victim or his family.

¶ 12 On May 8, 2023, a hearing was held in which the State noted that defendant’s husband had contacted the Prospect Heights Police Department indicating that defendant left last week after writing a note. She left her keys, her phone, and her watch at home, she withdrew $3,000 from the bank, and “has since been MIA.” The trial court issued a “no-bail warrant.”

¶ 13 Later that afternoon, a hearing was held via video conference, wherein defendant appeared and stated that she was in Illinois. The State then requested a change of bond circumstances and asked for electronic monitoring. The case was continued to May 16, 2023.

¶ 14 On May 16, 2023, the State filed a petition for a hearing on violation of bail bond conditions and application to increase the amount of bail. The State alleged in the petition that on May 8, 2023, defendant “committed the offense of absenting herself from the court’s jurisdiction” and that a police report had been filed on May 13, 2023, regarding video and audio recordings of the victim that defendant posted to YouTube. The State noted that the victim and his family were very concerned, and that at a minimum, the State was requesting electronic monitoring. The trial court acknowledged that the posts on YouTube were an indirect violation of the “no contact” condition of bond. The trial court denied the electronic monitoring request, but entered a “stalking, no contact order.” The case was continued to July 6, 2023.

¶ 15 On June 29, 2023, a hearing was held in which the State noted that it was contacted by the Prospect Heights Police Department the day before, indicating that it had initiated a missing person investigation in connection with defendant, based on suicidal behavior and prior depression. Three weeks prior, messages had been exchanged between defendant and an adult male living in Florida. The messages were conducted over a “self-declared message center for suicidal people.” Defendant left videos on her computer for her husband and children labeled “Good-Bye.”

¶ 16 The State requested leave to file a violation of bail bond in that defendant left the jurisdiction without permission and posted new videos of the victim to YouTube. The trial court granted the State leave to file the violation of bail bond. The court stated it would issue a bond forfeiture warrant, “no bail.”

¶ 17 The next court date that appears in the record took place almost a year later, on June 12, 2024. At that time, defendant was in custody. The State asked for leave to file a petition to detain defendant under the Pretrial Fairness Act (Act). 725 ICLS 5/110-6.1(a)(1.5) (West Supp. 2023) (amended by Public Act 101-652 (eff. Jan. 1, 2023)). The petition alleged that defendant posed a

real and present threat to the safety of the victim and had a high likelihood of flight. The State noted that defendant had reached into the victim’s car with a gun and pointed it at the victim and had absconded the jurisdiction to Florida where she was arrested for attempted murder. The State also noted that defendant violated the stalking and no contact order by continuing to post audio and video recordings of the victim on YouTube.

¶ 18 At the hearing, defense counsel indicated that she had not been given the petition, and asked to pass the case so she could review it. After a short break, the case was recalled and all the parties indicated they were ready to proceed.

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People v. Merar, 2024 IL App (1st) 241512-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2024).

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