People v. Price

867 N.E.2d 972, 369 Ill. App. 3d 395, 310 Ill. Dec. 921, 2006 Ill. App. LEXIS 1144
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided December 12, 2006·No. 4-06-0036·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

JUSTICE COOK

delivered the opinion of the court:

In August 2002, a grand jury indicted defendant, Ann M. Price, for the offenses of theft (720 ILCS 5/16 — 1(a)(2) (West 2002)) and official misconduct (720 ILCS 5/33 — 3 (West 2002)). On October 4, 2005, defendant entered an open guilty plea to one count of theft, a Class A misdemeanor, which was accepted by the court, apparently without objection by the State. On October 5, 2005, a jury found defendant guilty of official misconduct. In December 2005, the trial court sentenced defendant on the official-misconduct conviction to 2 years’ probation and 200 hours of community service. Defendant appeals, arguing the acceptance of her guilty plea to the theft charge barred the State’s prosecution on the official-misconduct charge. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

While employed by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), defendant took a state vehicle to Chicago, attended a Barry Manilow concert, and spent the night at a hotel. After she returned to Springfield, she submitted a travel voucher to her employer for her travel and lodging expenses, claiming she had attended a job-fair conference sponsored by the Chicago Botanic Gardens. When later confronted about the situation, defendant admitted she did not go to Chicago to attend a job conference and that she had fabricated a schedule for the nonexistent conference to attach to her travel voucher.

In August 2002, a grand jury indicted defendant for (1) theft (720 ILCS 5/16 — 1(a)(2) (West 2002)) for falsifying and submitting travel documents to IEPA for reimbursement and (2) official misconduct (720 ILCS 5/33 — 3 (West 2002)) for falsifying and submitting travel documents for reimbursement.

On October 4, 2005, before defendant’s trial began, defendant pleaded guilty to theft, and the trial court accepted defendant’s plea, apparently without any objection by the State. The following day, at the close of all evidence in the case, defendant moved for a directed verdict, arguing the counts for theft and official misconduct were based on the same act, and therefore, defendant could not be prosecuted on the official-misconduct charge because she had pleaded guilty to theft.

The trial court denied defendant’s motion for a directed verdict. The jury then found defendant guilty of official misconduct. The trial court sentenced defendant as stated for official misconduct. The record contains no indication defendant was sentenced for theft. Defendant appealed.

II. ANALYSIS

On appeal, in her initial brief, defendant argues her conviction for official misconduct violates the one-act, one-crime doctrine because she previously pleaded guilty to theft, a charge based on the same acts, falsifying and submitting travel documents for reimbursement, as the official-misconduct charge. Defendant also argued that section 3 — 4(a) of the Criminal Code of 1961 (Code) (720 ILCS 5/3 — 4(a) (West 2002)) barred her prosecution for official misconduct. Finally, in her reply brief, defendant argues her prosecution for official misconduct violated the Illinois double-jeopardy clause. Defendant boils down the gist of her argument in the last line of her reply brief by stating, “Under Illinois law, the State could not proceed with the official[-]misconduct prosecution after the court accepted [defendant’s] guilty plea to the lesser[-]included offense arising from the same act.”

A. Forfeiture

The State first argues defendant forfeited her argument because the record does not contain a report or record of defendant entering her guilty plea on the theft charge. The State cites People v. Raczkowski, 359 Ill. App. 3d 494, 496, 834 N.E.2d 596, 598-99 (2005), and People v. Toft, 355 Ill. App. 3d 1102, 1105, 824 N.E.2d 309, 312 (2005), for the proposition that an issue relating to the conduct of a hearing or proceeding is not subject to review absent a report or record of the proceeding.

However, the issue in this case does not relate to the conduct of a hearing or proceeding. While the record contains neither a transcript of the plea proceeding nor a docket entry reflecting the plea, it is clear from the record defendant pleaded guilty to theft before her trial on the official-misconduct charge began, and the trial court accepted her plea. As a result, defendant has not forfeited this issue, and we must address defendant’s substantive arguments.

B. Double Jeopardy

We first address defendant’s argument that her prosecution for official misconduct violated the Illinois Constitution’s double-jeopardy clause (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, §10) because the court had previously accepted her guilty plea to theft. In determining whether a defendant’s Illinois double-jeopardy rights have been violated, Illinois courts look to how the United States Supreme Court interprets the federal double-jeopardy clause (U.S. Const., amend. V). People v. Sienkiewicz, 208 Ill. 2d 1, 5, 802 N.E.2d 767, 771 (2003).

The prohibition against double jeopardy protects against three distinct abuses: (1) a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal; (2) a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction; and (3) multiple punishments for the same offense. Ohio v. Johnson, 467 U.S. 493, 498, 81 L. Ed. 2d 425, 433, 104 S. Ct. 2536, 2540 (1984). According to the United States Supreme Court, the reason the State is barred from retrying a defendant after he is acquitted or convicted is to ensure that the State does not make repeated attempts to convict an individual. Johnson, 467 U.S. at 498-99, 81 L. Ed. 2d at 433, 104 S. Ct. at 2540. The Illinois Supreme Court has stated that the protection against double jeopardy afforded by the Illinois Constitution is no greater than that provided by the United States Constitution. People v. Ortiz, 196 Ill. 2d 236, 253, 752 N.E.2d 410, 421 (2001).

While the list of possible scenarios where the State would be barred from prosecuting a defendant due to the double-jeopardy clause are too numerous to list here, we list a few such situations for illustrative purposes. The United States Supreme Court has held that the double-jeopardy clause prohibits a State from charging a defendant with a new charge after a defendant had already pleaded guilty and been sentenced on a previous charge for a lesser-included offense. Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 53 L. Ed. 2d 187, 97 S. Ct. 2221 (1977).

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People v. Price, 867 N.E.2d 972, 369 Ill. App. 3d 395, 310 Ill. Dec. 921, 2006 Ill. App. LEXIS 1144 (Ill. Ct. App. 2006).

867 N.E.2d 972 (People v. Price) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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