People v. Young

279 N.E.2d 392, 4 Ill. App. 3d 602, 1972 Ill. App. LEXIS 1680
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided February 1, 1972·No. 55360·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE LEIGHTON

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal by the State.* 1 On motions by appellee to quash a search warrant and suppress evidence, the warrant was quashed and the evidence seized under its purported authority was suppressed. The sole issue is whether the affidavit, filed when application was made for the search warrant, alleged facts which established probable cause.

On September 11, 1969, acting under authority of a search warrant, Chicago police officers searched defendant and his home. They seized a quantity of marijuana. Thereafter, defendant was charged with possession of narcotics. Prior to trial, he moved to quash the search warrant and suppress the evidence. The search warrant issued on an affidavit that alleged:

“I, Kenneth Burt, a police officer for the City of Chicago, County of Cook had a conversation with a rehable police informant who in the past has given information resulting in three narcotic convictions. This informant stated that on the 9th of Sept. 1969 he was in the above described apt. and at that time he purchased a tinfoil bag of Marijuana for the sum of $10.00 U.S.C. from a m/n known to him as Donald Young. The informant also stated that what he had in fact purchased was Marijuana because he had smoked some thereof. The informant further stated that as he was leaving the above-described apt. he observed in the possession and under the direct control of this m/n known to him as Donald Young a quantity of Marijuana.”

In support of his motions, appeHee contended that the affidavit did not allege to whom, when or where the informant had “[gjiven information resulting in three narcotic convictions.” Appellee argued that when application was made for the search warrant, reliability of the informant was not shown and probable cause for its issuance was not established. After hearing the parties, the trial judge ruled that although the officer who applied for the search warrant said that “a rehable police informant” had given the information, he didn’t “[s]ay to whom, when, where or how. For that reason I don’t think the Court can rely on the reliability of the so-called rehable informer’.” The warrant was quashed and the seized evidence ordered suppressed.

AppeHant contends that this ruling was error. It argues that the affidavit met all the requirements, of Aguilar, 2 even though it did not give the date on which the informant furnished the information or described the person to whom the informant spoke.

Recently, citing United States v. Ventresca (1965), 380 U.S. 102, 85 S.Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684, we said that affidavits for search warrants are to be interpreted in a realistic manner, not tested by elaborately technical requirements. (People v. Peavy, 1 Ill.App.3d 478, 274 N.E.2d 892.) There are, however, two requirements which are not technical and which every affidavit for a search warrant must meet. First, though the affidavit be bottomed on hearsay information and not on the direct personal observations of the affiant, it must inform the issuing magistrate of some of the underlying circumstances from which the informant gathered his information. Second, the affidavit must allege some, of the underlying circumstances from which the affiant concluded that the informant, whose identity need not be disclosed, was credible and reliable. (Aguilar v. Texas (1964), 378 U.S. 108, 114, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723.) These requirements are constitutionally mandated. (See Nathanson v. United States (1933), 290 U.S. 41, 54 S.Ct. 11, 78 L.Ed. 159; Giordenello v. United States (1958), 357 U.S. 480, 78 S.Ct. 1245, 2 L.Ed. 2d 1503.) Accordingly, we have held that an affidavit based on the hearsay of an undisclosed informer, if it is to support issuance of a search warrant, must show why the hearsay should be credited and explain with particularity why the undisclosed source is reliable. People v. Perlman, 126 Ill.App.2d 481, 483, 262 N.E.2d 253; see Spinelli v. United States (1969), 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637.

In People v. Parker, 42 Ill.2d 42, 245 N.E.2d 487, narcotics were uncovered and seized pursuant to a search warrant which issued on verified complaints reciting that the affiant, a state narcotics inspector “has been informed by an informant who has previously given information to said complainant which proved to be true.” The affiant alleged that the defendant had a quantity of marijuana stored in a desk where he worked and in his home, which an undisclosed informer said, he had previously observed. The affidavit recited that on a recent occasion the informer had purchased marijuana from defendant, marijuana which he turned, over to the affiant. From a different view, the issue which Parker presented to the Supreme Court was the same as the one which appellant presents for our review. After citing Aguilar and Spinelli, and referring to a number of its own decisions, the court concluded that the affidavits in Parker did not establish “[t]hat the informant * * * was ‘credible’ or his information ‘reliable’.” 42 Ill.2d 42, at 44.

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People v. Young, 279 N.E.2d 392, 4 Ill. App. 3d 602, 1972 Ill. App. LEXIS 1680 (Ill. Ct. App. 1972).

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