People v. Pearse

2017 IL 121072
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 26, 2018
Docket121072
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 2017 IL 121072 (People v. Pearse) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Pearse, 2017 IL 121072 (Ill. 2018).

Opinion

Digitally signed by Reporter of Decisions Illinois Official Reports Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Supreme Court Date: 2018.01.22 15:24:31 -06'00'

People v. Pearse, 2017 IL 121072

Caption in Supreme THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Appellee, v. BRIAN Court: PEARSE, Appellant.

Docket No. 121072

Filed March 23, 2017

Decision Under Appeal from the Appellate Court for the Second District; heard in that Review court on appeal from the Circuit Court of Boone County, the Hon. Robert Tobin, Judge, presiding.

Judgment Reversed.

Counsel on Michael J. Pelletier, State Appellate Defender, Thomas A. Lilien, Appeal Deputy Defender, and Jack Hildebrand, Assistant Appellate Defender, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, of Elgin, for appellant.

Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, of Springfield (David L. Franklin, Solicitor General, and Michael M. Glick and Evan B. Elsner, Assistant Attorneys General, of Chicago, of counsel), for the People. Justices CHIEF JUSTICE KARMEIER delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Justices Freeman, Thomas, Kilbride, Garman, Burke, and Theis concurred in the judgment and opinion.

OPINION

¶1 Following a jury trial in the circuit court of Boone County, defendant, Brian Pearse, was convicted of failing to register his address in accordance with section 3 of the Sex Offender Registration Act (Act) (730 ILCS 150/3 (West 2012)). On appeal, defendant argued that (1) he was not proved guilty of that offense beyond a reasonable doubt and (2) the trial court erred in giving the jury nonpattern instructions that did not apply to the facts of the case. The appellate court, with one justice dissenting, affirmed the defendant’s conviction. 2016 IL App (2d) 140051-U. We allowed the defendant’s petition for leave to appeal (Ill. S. Ct. R. 315(a) (eff. Jan. 1, 2015)) and now reverse the judgment of the appellate court.

¶2 STATUTES INVOLVED ¶3 Section 2(I) of the Act defines a “fixed residence” as “any and all places that a sex offender resides for an aggregate period of time of 5 or more days in a calendar year.” 730 ILCS 150/2(I) (West 2012). ¶4 Section 3 provides in pertinent part: “(a) A sex offender *** shall, within the time period prescribed in subsections (b) and (c), register in person and provide accurate information as required by the Department of State Police. *** The sex offender *** shall register: (1) with the chief of police in the municipality in which he or she resides or is temporarily domiciled for a period of time of 3 or more days ***[.] *** For purposes of this Article, the place of residence or temporary domicile is defined as any and all places where the sex offender resides for an aggregate period of time of 3 or more days during any calendar year. *** A sex offender or sexual predator who is temporarily absent from his or her current address of registration for 3 or more days shall notify the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction of his or her current registration, including the itinerary for travel, in the manner provided in Section 6 of this Act for notification to the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction of change of address. *** (b) Any sex offender ***, regardless of any initial, prior, or other registration, shall, within 3 days of *** establishing a residence, place of employment, or temporary domicile in any county, register in person as set forth in subsection (a) ***.” 730 ILCS 150/3(a), (b) (West 2012). ¶5 Section 6 of the Act states in relevant part:

-2- “If any other person required to register under this Article changes his or her residence address *** he or she shall report in person, to the law enforcement agency with whom he or she last registered, his or her new address ***.” 730 ILCS 150/6 (West 2012).

¶6 BACKGROUND ¶7 Pretrial proceedings in this case are fully discussed in the appellate court’s disposition, and we need not reiterate that account here. We note only that there was considerable uncertainty among the parties and the circuit court as to what, precisely, defendant was charged with and what the State had to prove, and intended to prove, in order to secure a conviction under section 3 of the Act, the statutory provision identified in the indictment. In the course of hearings addressing defendant’s demand for a bill of particulars, the prosecutor stated his theory to be that defendant “never registered a change of address” after he returned to his home in Belvidere following a short stay in the hospital. The quoted language tracked that used in the indictment, wherein, as amended, the State alleged that defendant “failed to register a change of address in accordance with the provisions of the Child Sex Offender Registration Act, with the Chief of Police, or his designee, of the City of Belvidere, Boone County, Illinois, within three days of moving from his registered address.” The trial court observed, since defendant had previously registered his home address in Belvidere, the State’s theory suggested that defendant would be required to “reregister that place” upon his return. ¶8 At defendant’s jury trial, the State’s first witness, Forest Park police Officer Jason Keeling testified that, on January 5, 2012, he was directed by his dispatcher to River Edge Hospital in Forest Park to register a sex offender.1 Keeling filled out a registration form for defendant. The form, admitted into evidence as People’s Exhibit No. 1, contained several headings with associated boxes that could be checked. Keeling checked the box for “Initial Registration.” He did not check the box for “Change of Address.” Keeling listed the address of the hospital as defendant’s “resident address” and, pursuant to information provided by defendant, listed defendant’s previously registered, home address—1123 South State Street, Belvidere—as defendant’s “secondary address.” After Keeling filled out the form, he presented it to defendant for his review and signature. Keeling subsequently turned the form over to his dispatcher for processing. ¶9 Julie Grubar, a Belvidere police officer, testified that, on October 18, 2011, well before defendant entered the hospital, she had visited 1123 South State Street, a two-story house in Belvidere, to make sure defendant was residing there. That day, she filled out a form verifying that defendant lived at 1123 South State Street. The form was delivered to the dispatch department, and a Law Enforcement Agency Data System (LEADS) report was

1 In his opening statement, defense counsel suggested that defendant “ask[ed] for assistance from the hospital in making arrangements to register his address at Forest Park to let the officers know in Forest Park that he is temporarily there,” but we find no testimony in the record to that effect. Such a request would, however, provide one explanation for how authorities became aware of defendant’s presence at the hospital. Another might be the implication, in the limited testimony of a defense witness, that defendant was involuntarily committed while at a Belvidere hospital before he was transferred to the hospital in Forest Park.

-3- created and entered into the database. The form was, ultimately, admitted into evidence as defendant’s Exhibit No. 1. ¶ 10 On January 27, 2012, Grubar was dispatched to the 200 block of East Fifth Street in reference to a “suspicious person.” She then went to 1123 South State Street. Over objection, Grubar was allowed to testify that she went to that location because the “suspicious person” resided at that address.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2017 IL 121072, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-pearse-ill-2018.