People v. Redmond

407 N.E.2d 132, 85 Ill. App. 3d 599, 40 Ill. Dec. 901, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3103
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 27, 1980
Docket79-208
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 407 N.E.2d 132 (People v. Redmond) 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. Redmond, 407 N.E.2d 132, 85 Ill. App. 3d 599, 40 Ill. Dec. 901, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3103 (Ill. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE WOODWARD

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Jerry Redmond, was convicted in 1976 of the offense of indecent liberties with a child and was sentenced to five years’ probation. A petition to revoke probation was subsequently filed, alleging that defendant had committed two rapes and an armed robbery. A revocation hearing was held, after which the hearing judge found that the State had proved by a preponderance of the evidence that defendant had committed armed robbery against Susan Johnson. Defendant was resentenced to a determinate term of six years. On appeal, defendant contends (1) that he was denied his sixth amendment right to counsel at a prehearing lineup; (2) that he was denied his fifth amendment right to due process by the holding of a suggestive and untrustworthy identification lineup; and (3) that he was not shown by a preponderance of the evidence to have committed armed robbery.

At the revocation hearing, Mary McWethy and Darlene Albertson testified as to incidents in which each had been raped by an intruder in her home. Police took several items from Albertson’s apartment and tested blood stains thereon. Palm and fingerprints were also taken, as were hair samples found in both apartments and on the bodies of both rape victims. After all the evidence was presented, the hearing judge concluded that the evidence did not sufficiently prove that defendant had committed either rape.

Susan Johnson testified at the revocation hearing that, on August 2, 1978, at approximately 2 o’clock or 2:30 a.m., she was asleep on a couch in her living room when she awoke to see a black man standing approximately two feet away. The man approached her, held a knife to her throat and spoke some threatening words to her. The room was lit by a lamp and the television set; however, she was only able to see the man for approximately three seconds before he put a scarf over her face. The man took some money from her purse and reached for her nightie, at which time she screamed. Her two daughters then came downstairs and the three women fled through the front door. After the incident, Ms. Johnson was only able to describe the intruder to police as a black man, approximately 19 years of age. No scientific evidence was taken at the scene. Later in August Ms. Johnson viewed six photographs, including the defendant’s, at the Aurora police department. After approximately five minutes, she selected the photo of one James Wade, as she “thought” that he was the intruder.

Defendant initially testified at the hearing that he was at home during the entire evening and morning of the robbery; that testimony was corroborated by defendant’s mother, with whom he lived. The State, however, introduced evidence that a police officer had seen and stopped the defendant, who was driving a car with a broken headlight, at approximately 12:20 a.m. on August 2. No arrest was made. Defendant subsequently testified that he did remember the incident and that he had gone directly home afterward.

Eight days after his arrest and prior to the revocation hearing, defendant had been placed in a lineup at the Aurora police department. McWethy, Johnson, Albertson, and an unnamed complainant, together with several of their friends and/or relatives, viewed the lineup together. Each of the five men in the lineup was black, was dressed in red coveralls and was similar to defendant in height and weight. Each man was required to take one step forward, turn, and state “John, are you there?” (a statement repeated by the intruder during the McWethy rape). The voice was communicated by microphone to the witnesses who were seated in a small room and who viewed the lineup through a glass window. Ms. Johnson testified that all four women were told not to talk to anyone in the viewing room and that they did not do so then or afterwards. She testified that she chose defendant in the lineup because of his voice and his profile, and that after the lineup she was positive that defendant was the intruder. When the sergeant asked if anyone could identify anyone in the lineup, one witness, who apparently was Ms. Johnson, indicated the defendant, after which the other witnesses also chose defendant.

Defendant first contends that he did not receive a fair hearing in that he was denied his sixth amendment right to counsel at the prehearing lineup. Defendant argues that, even if he did not request an attorney prior to the lineup, he should have been advised of his right to counsel at that time. Thus, defendant contends, the lineup identification was inadmissible at his revocation hearing. The State contends that defendant was aware of his right to counsel and that, even if his rights were technically violated, a new hearing is not required because the lineup identification was nevertheless admissible at the hearing.

An accused charged with an offense punishable by imprisonment clearly has a right to be represented by counsel at all critical stages of proceedings, that is, when the accused may be prejudiced so as to infect his subsequent trial with the absence of fundamental fairness. (People v. Jones (1976), 36 Ill. App. 3d 190, 343 N.E.2d 644; People v. Morris (1964), 30 Ill. 2d 406, 197 N.E.2d 433.) This court has held that the right to counsel does exist at any pretrial lineup. (People v. Dismuke (1972), 3 Ill. App. 3d 553, 278 N.E.2d 152.) However, the same rules do not always apply in probation revocation hearings as apply in criminal trials. In People v. Dowery (1975), 62 Ill. 2d 200,340 N.E.2d 529, the supreme court held that the fourth amendment exclusionary rule is not applicable to probation revocation hearings. The objective of that rule is to discourage improper police procedures. The evidence which would normally be inadmissible under the rule is not patently “untrustworthy,” and is admissible in a revocation hearing because all reliable evidence should be available to the hearing judge. However, in People v. Bell (1977), 50 Ill. App. 3d 82, 365 N.E.2d 203, the court refused to extend the Dowery principle to fifth and sixth amendment violations, reasoning that an involuntary confession, unlike evidence obtained in an illegal search and seizure, could indeed be untrustworthy, and thus should not be admissible at a revocation hearing. This principle was applied in People v. Peterson (1978), 74 Ill. 2d 478, 384 N.E.2d 348, where the supreme court held that if a confession was, in fact, involuntary, it was not a “mere technical violation” as was the Miranda violation in Dowery and the confession should not be admissible at a probation revocation hearing. The general principle to be derived from these cases appears to be that evidence obtained in technical violation of constitutional rights can be introduced at a probation revocation hearing, if that evidence is shown to be probative and trustworthy. In the instant case, then, the right to counsel did exist at defendant’s prehearing lineup. However, even if that right was violated, the identification testimony would still be admissible at the hearing if it is shown to have been “trustworthy.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
407 N.E.2d 132, 85 Ill. App. 3d 599, 40 Ill. Dec. 901, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-redmond-illappct-1980.