People v. Plumley

545 N.E.2d 300, 189 Ill. App. 3d 274, 136 Ill. Dec. 776, 1989 Ill. App. LEXIS 1468
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 26, 1989
DocketNo. 1—87—3039
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 545 N.E.2d 300 (People v. Plumley) 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. Plumley, 545 N.E.2d 300, 189 Ill. App. 3d 274, 136 Ill. Dec. 776, 1989 Ill. App. LEXIS 1468 (Ill. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

JUSTICE SCARIANO

delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a bench trial, defendant was convicted of voluntary-manslaughter and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. She now appeals, arguing that she was arrested without probable cause.

During the hearing on defendant’s motion to quash her arrest and suppress her statement, Chicago police officer Ken Mikolajczyk testified that he responded to a radio dispatch regarding a woman seeking assistance at 4220 West Fullerton Avenue in Chicago at approximately 2:30 a.m. on December 8, 1986. He found defendant waiting in front of the Trading Post bar; she was “upset” and repeatedly asked Mikolajczyk to “come with me,” saying she thought Joe was dead. Mikolajczyk drove defendant to a two-story residence at 2220 North Keeler and accompanied her into the vestibule, where he noticed bags and a television set outside the front door of an apartment. Defendant unlocked the door to the apartment, and Mikolajczyk followed her in. He saw a body on the couch across from the door and noted that there were blood spatters on the wall and ceiling around the couch. He also found a crowbar in the dining room of the apartment.

Chicago police detective Michael Herigodt arrived at the apartment approximately one half hour later. He noticed that the bags in the vestibule contained clothing and personal items, and he also noticed that a man, later identified as Edward Sauer, was with defendant in the dining room. Herigodt told other police officers to transport defendant and Sauer to the police station for questioning. Shirley Wilson, the woman who had called the police for defendant, was also brought to the station. Herigodt testified that defendant was not under arrest at this time; however, she was not told that she was not under arrest.

At the police station, defendant was placed in an interview room. Herigodt arrived after 5 a.m. and, upon questioning defendant, learned that she had discovered the body. For the first time, Herigodt noticed spots which he thought were blood spatters on defendant’s clothing. He testified that when he saw these spots defendant became a suspect and Herigodt considered her to be under arrest. He then advised defendant of her rights, confiscated her clothing and asked her to submit to a polygraph test. After the polygraph, at approximately 1 p.m., Herigodt questioned defendant and she confessed to having killed the deceased.

Assistant State’s Attorney Michael O’Donnell testified that upon his arrival at the police station in the early afternoon of December 8, 1986, he went directly to the interview room in which defendant was held. As he entered, he saw defendant vomiting into a wastebasket; and although she declined his offer of medical assistance, she did accept a glass of water. Defendant then gave a statement which was recorded by a court reporter; she initialed each page of the transcribed statement and signed the last page.

Defendant testified that she was handcuffed when she left the crime scene with the police and that she went to the police station against her will. She stated that the officer who transported her to the station said he “was not going to lose another one,” and that she thought she was under arrest. She claimed that she was led to believe that if she gave a statement she would be allowed to go home. She also claimed that she did not understand her rights at the time she gave her statement and that the assistant State’s Attorney was the only one to read her rights to her, although Herigodt testified that he had given defendant her Miranda warnings.

The parties stipulated that if Chicago police officer Lavouta were to testify, he would state that he transported defendant to the police station at approximately 4 a.m. on December 8, 1986, that she sat in the back seat of his car and that she was not handcuffed.

In denying defendant’s motion the trial judge stated:

“[T]he first question is to determine *** when [defendant] was detained for purposes of the Fourth Amendment under the case law.
And I find I believe the police officers when they testified that indeed the detention started at the time Herigodt noticed a splattering of blood on the legs of this exhibit, the pants legs.
That is the believable time to me, and I find the evidence warrants that finding.
As a matter of fact before that time I am ruling that she was voluntarily at the police station in the role of a person who was claiming to be a witness, someone who had come upon the scene and who was cooperating with the police.
Now that is when I hold the seizure took place, when she was really not free to go and the arrest was taking place at that time.
I believe the police did have probable cause to place her under arrest for that crime under the totality of the circumstances that was then available to them.”

The case then proceeded to a bench trial.

Detective Herigodt testified that defendant initially told him that she awoke at approximately 2:30 p.m. on December 7, 1986, and that before leaving the apartment she “observed the rear door leading onto an enclosed back porch open.” She did not see the deceased at that time. She left the apartment, spending most of the day going to “different bars” and then going to her friend’s, Joe Morgan’s, house. Defendant did not know where Morgan lived, and Herigodt was unable to locate him. Defendant returned to the apartment at approximately 2 a.m. on December 8, 1986. She entered through the front door, went into the kitchen, observed the rear door open, saw the deceased lying on the couch and went to the corner bar.

After her polygraph test, defendant told the following version to Herigodt. She had been living with the deceased, Joseph Adamus, “on and off for the past year and a half.” Adamus gave her $2 each day and forced himself on her sexually on several occasions. On December 7, 1986, at approximately 2:30 a.m., defendant and Adamus returned to their apartment after having had an argument in a tavern, and Adamus “stripped down to his shorts” and wanted to have sex with defendant. Defendant refused, they struggled, and defendant “picked up a clock radio from an end table in the living room and struck [Ada-mus] on the side of the head,” then ran out of the apartment. As she returned to the apartment approximately 30 minutes later, she found a crowbar on the pavement of a gangway. Adamus was lying on the couch under a blanket, and when defendant entered the apartment, he laughed, told her she “would have to use something stronger than a radio to hurt him,” and that “she didn’t have the balls to hit him.” She then hit him on the right side of his head and face. Defendant left the apartment to have a few drinks, and when she returned she heard Adamus snoring loudly. She then went to her room and went to sleep.

Although defendant claimed to have hit Adamus only once, the parties stipulated that if Dr. Donoghue were to testify, he would state that he performed the post-mortem examination of Adamus, that Ada-mus had a number of lacerations, abrasions and hemorrhages, and that he died of “craniocerebral injuries due to blunt force.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
545 N.E.2d 300, 189 Ill. App. 3d 274, 136 Ill. Dec. 776, 1989 Ill. App. LEXIS 1468, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-plumley-illappct-1989.