Village of Mundelein v. Thompson

793 N.E.2d 996, 341 Ill. App. 3d 842, 276 Ill. Dec. 237, 2003 Ill. App. LEXIS 929
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJuly 17, 2003
Docket2-02-0376
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 793 N.E.2d 996 (Village of Mundelein v. Thompson) 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
Village of Mundelein v. Thompson, 793 N.E.2d 996, 341 Ill. App. 3d 842, 276 Ill. Dec. 237, 2003 Ill. App. LEXIS 929 (Ill. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

JUSTICE BYRNE

delivered the opinion of the court:

The Village of Mundelein appeals from an order of the circuit court of Lake County suppressing evidence obtained as a result of an allegedly illegal investigatory stop of defendant, Robert C. Thompson, and rescinding the statutory summary suspension of defendant’s driver’s license, pursuant to section 11 — 501.1 of the Illinois Vehicle Code (Code) (625 ILCS 5/11 — 501.1 (West 2000)), for driving under the influence of alcohol. We dismiss the appeal of the portion of the order suppressing evidence and reverse the portion of the order rescinding the summary suspension.

The parties purportedly stipulated to a statement of facts for use at the suppression hearing. Both parties filed memoranda of law prior to the hearing, each of which contained a section entitled “Stipulated Facts” that referred to a transcript of a dispatch tape from the Mundelein police department. The two statements of stipulated facts are not identical, and, in fact, vary significantly in their phrasing at the critical juncture. There is no indication that any other evidence was presented. We therefore take the sequence of events from the points at which the statements agree, except that for the critical events we provide both the Village’s and defendant’s statements.

On December 7, 2001, shortly after 2 a.m., a male caller contacted the Mundelein police department to report that he was “following a guy in a van who seems to be drunk” and that the van was “all over the road.” He described the van and provided its full license plate number. The dispatcher radioed a message to Officer Kaplan of the Mundelein police department with a description of the van and its license number.

Beyond this, defendant states:

“The dispatcher then continues the conversation with the person who is still at this time unidentified who indicates ‘they got him right now. They are right behind him.’ At this time Officer Lechner (who has heard the dispatch to Officer Kaplan) *** attempts to stop the vehicle as the caller provides the dispatcher with his name and address commenting at the same time ‘Man, this guy’s refusing to stop.’ At the request of the dispatcher, the caller then goes on to provide the dispatcher an address and phone number.”

There is no indication of when the van actually pulled to the side of the road, nor is there discussion of whether defendant ever acknowledged the police by means other than pulling over.

The Village states:

“At 2:12:15 the dispatcher continues on with their conversation with the caller to get an update on their location. When the caller advises that they are just passing Family Video, the dispatcher confirms that information. The caller then states, ‘They got him right now. They are right behind him.’ *** When the dispatcher advises the caller to confirm that it is a minivan, the caller states, ‘Yeah, he’s right behind him now. I’m in a wrecker.’ Officer Lechner eventually stops the defendant’s minivan on Route 83 south of Midlothian Road. (The Village would ask the Court to take judicial notice that the distance from Hawley Street and Gilmer Road to Route 83 and Midlothian Road is approximately 3.1 miles.)
At this point, the dispatcher asks the caller for his name and address. While giving his address, the caller states ‘Man, this guy’s refusing to stop.’ After giving his name and address the caller advises the dispatcher, ‘I’m going to standby, behind in case.’ ”

Defendant, the driver of the van, was eventually arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

Defendant filed a motion to quash his arrest and suppress the evidence derived from it and a petition to rescind the statutory summary suspension of his driver’s license. On March 15, 2002, the circuit court granted both. It recited that the parties had stipulated to the facts and to the transcript of the dispatch tape, and it ruled that all information available to the Mundelein dispatcher could be imputed to the arresting officer. It further ruled:

“The dispatcher *** failed to obtain sufficient information prior to and up to the initiation of the stop *** including, but not limited to the fact that the dispatcher failed to obtain, at that time, identification of the anonymous caller or verification of his identity or other information so as to provide sufficient indicia of reliability as to warrant a Terry stop of the defendant’s vehicle.”

The Village filed its notice of appeal from this order on April 5, 2002. On July 11, 2002, the parties filed an “Agreed Statement of Facts,” which differs in critical detail from the two versions of “stipulated facts” presented to the trial court by defendant and the Village. The parties’ posttrial statement acknowledges the transcript of the dispatch tape, but does not stipulate “to the times or sequence as shown by the transcript.”

We first must consider what facts are before us in this matter. An agreed statement of facts, in lieu of a report of proceedings, is a proper method of placing facts into the appellate record. 166 Ill. 2d R. 323. In general, we are forced to assume that the adversarial process results in an agreed statement with a fair semblance to the reality of what took place below. In this case, however, we can be certain that something has gone awry. The trial court ruled on the basis of the two statements of “stipulated facts” and both of these are available to us. Now the parties have attempted to present us with a third set of purported facts that is clearly at variance from the first two. We do not believe that the parties consciously attempted to manipulate the facts to reframe the legal issues before us, but that would be the result of our acceptance of the agreed statement. We will not knowingly allow the parties to present facts and issues not before the trial court. See Tekansky v. Pearson, 263 Ill. App. 3d 759, 763-64 (1994) (refusing to consider facts not contained in the record on appeal). We therefore strike the agreed statement of facts and proceed on the basis of the documents that were before the trial court.

We next consider the scope of our jurisdiction. A reviewing court has an independent duty to insure that jurisdiction is proper in both civil and criminal cases (People v. O’Connor, 313 Ill. App. 3d 134, 135 (2000)), and thus we treat issues of jurisdiction regardless of whether either party has raised them. The Village states that this court has jurisdiction over the appeal of the suppression order pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 604(a) (188 Ill. 2d R. 604(a)) and over the rescission of the summary suspension pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 303 (155 Ill. 2d R. 303).

Supreme Court Rule 604(a) allows the State to pursue interlocutory appeals of certain orders in criminal cases, including those for suppression of evidence, when the substantive effect of the order is a dismissal of the charge. This court has construed Rule 604(a) to apply only to appeals brought by the State proper in criminal proceedings, and not to appeals brought by municipalities. Village of Cary v. Pavis, 171 Ill. App. 3d 1072 (1988).

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Bluebook (online)
793 N.E.2d 996, 341 Ill. App. 3d 842, 276 Ill. Dec. 237, 2003 Ill. App. LEXIS 929, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/village-of-mundelein-v-thompson-illappct-2003.