People v. Rhodes

612 N.E.2d 536, 243 Ill. App. 3d 701, 183 Ill. Dec. 884, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 522
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 15, 1993
Docket4-92-0090
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 612 N.E.2d 536 (People v. Rhodes) 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. Rhodes, 612 N.E.2d 536, 243 Ill. App. 3d 701, 183 Ill. Dec. 884, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 522 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

JUSTICE McCULLOUGH

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant Dennis J. Rhodes was convicted of unlawful delivery of alcohol to minors (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 43, par. 131) following a jury trial in Macoupin County, Illinois. He was placed on conditional discharge for a period of six months, fined $250 plus costs and sentenced to serve 10 weekends in the county jail. Defendant was also ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. He has appealed, contending (1) the State’s deliberate destruction of evidence deprived him of a fair trial and due process; (2) the trial court erred by giving certain jury instructions; (3) the trial court erred in allowing the State to present evidence that minors other than those named in the information were served alcohol; and (4) the trial court erred in denying his motion in limine to restrict the State’s use of an out-of-court statement by him where the State had filed formal discovery that there was no such statement in existence. We affirm.

The evidence presented at trial established that 13-year-old Carey Gan, 14-year-old Adrienne Spudich, and 15-year-old Alena Machuda attended a party at defendant’s house on July 19, 1991. Gan paid defendant between $2 and $4 and drank three beers and one mixed drink. Machuda drank two beers and one mixed drink although she did not pay defendant any money. Chris Best, a friend of defendant, gave her the beers. Spudich paid defendant $2 but only had a sip of Gan’s mixed drink.

All three girls were spending the night at Machuda’s house. Gan became sick and woke up Machuda’s mother, who realized the girls had been drinking. She had the other girls each phone their parents to come and get them. They all then went to the police station early that morning where each girl gave a written statement indicating they had been drinking alcohol at defendant’s house and listed the other minors present at that party.

Defendant testified that on July 19, 1991, he was supposed to go to another party with a friend, Darrin Bianco. As they were getting ready to go out, Best arrived, then left with Bianco and returned to defendant’s house with Machuda and two other high school students. Defendant explained that his refrigerator is equipped to hold a keg of beer which he keeps on tap at all times. The refrigerator has a spigot on the side of it to get beer directly from the keg. When Best, Bianco, Machuda and the others returned, the keg was nearly empty, so defendant filled a pitcher with the remaining beer and left with Bianco to buy a new keg. They did so and upon returning, defendant and Bianco drank the remaining beer in the pitcher. Defendant saw nobody under the age of 21 drinking beer.

Defendant left his house with Bianco but soon returned only to find several more people at his house, including Gan and Spudich. Defendant testified that two people present at the party were 21 years old and he provided them with beer and a mixed drink containing Malibu rum and pineapple juice. To the best of his knowledge, nobody else drank any alcohol while he was gone. The party ended at approximately midnight, and at 5:30 a.m. the police arrived at his house and placed him under arrest for unlawful delivery of alcohol to minors.

The original information charged defendant with committing the offense of:

“Unlawful delivery of alcohol to minors, in that said defendant, after purchasing or otherwise obtaining alcoholic liquor, gave or delivered said alcoholic liquor to Alena M. Machuda, Adrienne N. Spudich, and Carey A. Gan, a person under the age of 21 years.”

At the pretrial conference, the information was amended, over defendant’s objection, by interlineation to change it to read giving or delivering alcohol to “Alena M. Machuda, Adrienne N. Spudich or Carey A. Gan.” Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted and timely filed this appeal.

Defendant first contends the State’s deliberate destruction of evidence consisting of the original statements prepared by the witnesses deprived him of a fair trial and due process of law. Gan, Spudich and Machuda each testified they made two handwritten statements at the police station that morning. Machuda testified Officer Stipcak took her first statement away from her and told her to write another one including names of all the people at the party. She explained the only difference between the first and second statement she prepared was that the second one contained the names of the people at the party.

Spudich saw Officer Stipcak tear up her first written statement and throw it away. She also testified the only difference between the two statements was that the second one contained greater detail including names of the people present at the party. Gan also made two handwritten statements. She did not know what Officer Stipcak did with her first statement. Her second statement contained names of the people who were present at the party.

The United States Supreme Court has stated:

“Whatever duty the Constitution imposes on the States to preserve evidence, that duty must be limited to evidence that might be expected to play a significant role in the suspect’s defense. To meet this standard of constitutional materiality [citation], evidence must both possess an exculpatory value that was apparent before the evidence was destroyed, and be of such a nature that the defendant would be unable to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means.” (California v. Trombetta (1984), 467 U.S. 479, 488-89, 81 L. Ed. 2d 413, 422, 104 S. Ct. 2528, 2534.)

In addition, unless a defendant can show bad faith on the part of the police, a failure to preserve potentially useful evidence does not constitute a denial of due process. Arizona v. Youngblood (1988), 488 U.S. 51, 102 L. Ed. 2d 281, 109 S. Ct. 333; People v. Young (1991), 220 Ill. App. 3d 488, 496, 581 N.E.2d 241, 246-47.

Defendant has failed to show bad faith on the part of Officer Stipcak. All three girls testified Officer Stipcak asked them to write the second statements only because the first ones did not include names of the other people present at the party. Defendant had an opportunity to cross-examine each witness about the differences between her statements and each girl testified the only difference between the statements was the inclusion of names of the people at the party. Defendant has thus failed to show that a violation of his constitutional rights occurred.

Defendant next alleges the trial court erred in giving two of the State’s jury instructions which addressed the theory of accountability. He asserts the jury was improperly instructed on a theory of accountability where the evidence was limited to an accusation made by three girls of his conduct as a principal only. Defendant also contends the statute under which he was convicted makes the giving of an instruction on a theory of accountability improper because the offense is so defined that his conduct was inevitably incident to its commission.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
612 N.E.2d 536, 243 Ill. App. 3d 701, 183 Ill. Dec. 884, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 522, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-rhodes-illappct-1993.