People v. Thorne

2024 IL App (1st) 232400-U
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided May 2, 2024·No. 1-23-2400·Unpublished

Opinion

2024 IL App (1st) 23-2400-U Order filed: May 2 , 2024

FIRST DISTRICT

FOURTH DIVISION

No. 1-23-2400B

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Cook County.

)

v. ) No. 23MC1114576 )

PIERRE THORNE, ) Honorable ) Maryam Ahmad,

Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, presiding.

PRESIDING JUSTICE ROCHFORD delivered the judgment of the court.

Justice Hoffman concurred in the judgment.

Justice Ocasio specially concurred.

ORDER

¶1 Held: The circuit court’s order granting the State’s petition to deny pretrial release is affirmed over defendant’s contention that the trial court erred in considering the State’s proffer from police reports relating to his prior charges which were not tendered to defendant before the hearing.

¶2 Defendant, Pierre Thorne, appeals from an order granting the State’s petition to deny his pretrial release pursuant to article 110 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Code) (725 ILCS 5/110-1 et seq. (West 2022)), as amended by Public Act 101-652 (eff. Jan. 1, 2023), commonly known as the Pretrial Fairness Act (Act). 1 Defendant argues that he was denied a fair

1 While commonly known by these names, neither the Illinois Compiled Statutes nor the forgoing public act refer to the Act as the “Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today” Act, i.e., SAFE-T

hearing on the State’s petition where the State relied, in part, on facts contained in defendant’s prior police reports, but failed to produce those police reports in violation of section 6.1(f)(1) of the Code (725 ILCS 5/110-6.1(f)(1) (West 2022)). For the following reasons, we affirm.

¶3 Defendant was arrested on November 29, 2023 for an incident which occurred on December 8, 2022. The State filed felony complaints against defendant, which charged him with aggravated battery in a public way and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and alleged defendant, “without legal justification, knowingly and intentionally caused bodily harm to Jay S. Rudman (victim) in that he struck the victim in the head with a deadly weapon” at 100 West Madison Street in Chicago, Illinois 60602, a public way.

¶4 That same day, the State filed a verified petition seeking to deny defendant pretrial release pursuant to sections 110-2 and 110-6.1(a)(1.5) of the Code. Id. § 110-2, 6.1(a)(1.5). The State generally alleged that defendant was charged with a detainable offense—aggravated battery causing great bodily harm—and that defendant’s pretrial release posed a real and present threat to the safety of any person or persons or the community, based on the specific articulable facts of the case, and that no less restrictive conditions would avoid that threat. More specifically, the petition alleged:

“On 12/8/2022, 11:00 a.m., 100 W. Madison St., [defendant] grabbed a metal object from the ground (possibly a metal pipe) walked behind [the victim], whom he did not know and who did not provoke [defendant]. Then, [defendant] struck the back of [the victim’s]

head with the metal object. [The victim] immediately fell to the ground and began bleeding

Act, or the “Pretrial Fairness Act.” See Rowe v. Raoul, 2023 IL 129248, ¶ 4 n. 1. Certain provisions of the legislation in question were amended by Pub. Act 102-1104 (eff. Jan. 1, 2023). See Rowe, 2023 IL 129248, ¶ 4. The supreme court initially stayed the implementation of this legislation but vacated that stay effective September 18, 2023. Id. ¶ 52.

profusely from the back of his head and also sustained lacerations to his face from his fall to the ground. [The witness] got a good look at [defendant] as he fled the scene past [the witness’s] stationary car. The incident was captured on POD camera. [Defendant’s]

identity was learned by comparing his image from the POD video to images from the [Secretary] of State. On 9/21/23, [the witness] identified [defendant] in a photo array.

[Defendant] was placed in custody on 11/29/23. Post-Miranda, he identified himself in still images from the POD vid[eo].”

¶5 And on that date, the circuit court held a hearing on the petition. At the hearing, defendant was represented by an Assistant Public Defender (APD). At the outset of the hearing, the APD acknowledged “receipt of the People’s petition as well as the arrest report, the original case incident report, the [Chicago Police Department (CPD)] rap sheet, and a written version of the State’s [proffer]. We are answering ready for hearing.”

¶6 The Assistant State’s Attorney (ASA) was placed under oath and made the State’s proffer. On December 8, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. defendant and the victim were walking down Madison Street in Chicago. Defendant, unprovoked, grabbed an “unknown metal object, possibly a metal pipe, from the ground,” walked behind the victim, and struck the victim on the back of the head. The victim fell to the ground and defendant dropped the metal object. There is no evidence that defendant knew the victim. The victim did not see defendant before being struck; the attack “came out of nowhere.”

¶7 A man sitting in the passenger’s side of a stationary vehicle witnessed the incident (witness). After the attack, the witness observed defendant pick up the metal object from the ground, walk past the passenger side of the witness’s vehicle, and leave the scene. The witness then offered assistance to the victim and called 911.

¶8 When the officers arrived, they spoke with the witness and observed the victim on the ground “bleeding profusely from the back of his head.” The victim was transported to the hospital. The victim sustained multiple fractures to his face and jaw, a laceration to his chin, a laceration to the exterior scalp, and an abrasion to his left eye. He also sustained a broken jaw, an injury to his nose, and he lost several teeth. The victim required substantial medical attention following this incident including multiple reconstructive surgeries. His face has been permanently disfigured.

¶9 The officers recovered POD camera footage of the incident and defendant leaving the scene immediately following the attack. The officers identified defendant through the Illinois State Police Emergency Radio Network. The officers compared the name, driver’s license information, and Secretary of State image of the defendant to the POD video. Defendant’s photograph was then placed in a photo array and the officers administered that photo array to the witness on September 21, 2023. The witness positively identified defendant as the offender who he saw hit the victim with the metal object. After the witness identified defendant, officers went to defendant’s last known address. When defendant exited the residence, the officers took him into custody and advised him of his rights. Defendant waived his rights and made an identification of himself in a still image from the POD video of the attack.

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People v. Thorne, 2024 IL App (1st) 232400-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2024).

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