People ex rel. Hoyne v. Newcomer

• Decision Date: 02 October 1918
• Docket Number: No. 11559.,11559.
• Citation: 120 N.E. 244,284 Ill. 315
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. HOYNE, State's Atty., v. NEWCOMER, Judge, et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

284 Ill. 315

120 N.E. 244

PEOPLE ex rel. HOYNE, State's Atty.,

v.NEWCOMER, Judge, et al.

No. 11559.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 20, 1918.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 2, 1918.

Petition by Maclay Hoyne, State's Attorney, in the name of the People, for a peremptory writ of mandamus commanding John R. Newcomer, Judge of the Municipal Court of Chicago, and others to enter of record a nolle prosequi to an information pending in said court. Writ denied.

Farmer, J., dissenting.

Maclay Hoyne, State's Atty., of Chicago (Henry A. Berger and W. W. De Armond, both of Chicago, of counsel), for petitioner.

Samuel V. Ettelson, Corp. Counsel, Chester E. Cleveland, and Frank S. Righeimer, all of Chicago, for respondents.

CARTWRIGHT, J.

In pursuance of leave granted on his motion, Maclay Hoyne, state's attorney of Cook county, filed his petition in the name of the people for a peremptory writ of mandamus commanding the respondent John R. Newcomer, judge of the municipal court of Chicago, to enter of record a nolle prosequi to an information pending in said court on the complaint of John McMachon against Herbert Noon for a violation of section 259 of division 1 of the Criminal Code, which reads as follows: ‘Whoever keeps open any tippling house, or place where liquor is sold or given away, upon the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, shall be fined not exceeding $200’-and commanding the respondent Frank P. Danisch, clerk of said court, to record the entry and spread the same upon the records of the court. The petition alleged the pendency of the prosecution, the filing in writing on May 18, 1917, of the nolle prosequi, the refusal of the court to enter the same, and that no further proceedings had been taken in the cause. The respondent Newcomer answered admitting the filing of the nolle prosequi and his refusal to enter the same, but alleging that it was on May 14, 1917, and that he then caused an order to be entered of record in the cause as follows:

‘The court refuses to allow the entry of the nolle prosequi in this case, in which it is admitted by the state's attorney that he has made no investigation, and orders the case set for trial on July 2, 1917, at 9:30 o'clock a. m.’

The answer further alleged that there were pending in the court when the nolle prosequi was presented a great number of cases charging defendants with violations of section 259, and that the refusal to enter the nolle prosequi was on the ground that the relator had refused to prosecute that class of cases and had failed and refused to prosecute a single one out of about 450 cases of violations of the section, and insisted on dismissing all of them without having investigated the facts as to the guilt of any of the parties. A replication was filed, denying that the relator at any time or place admitted that he made no investigation of the facts in the cause or that the nolle prosequi was filed on May 14th, but alleging that it was filed on May 18th, and that no proceedings were had on May 14th except a continuance of the cause. The rejoinder to the replication reaffirmed that the state's attorney did admit that he made no investigation of the facts in the cause, and issue was taken on that fact by the surrejoinder. The court appointed John T. Richards, a member of the bar of this court, a special commissioner to take the evidence and report the same to this court, and the evidence was taken and reported in pursuance to the reference. The facts proved were in substance as follows:

A great many keepers of saloons in the city of Chicago had been arrested for violating section 259, and on February 26, 1917, 150 such cases were pending before another judge of the municipal court in which defendants demanded jury trials, and an assistant of the relator then entered a nolle prosequi in each of those cases, disposing summarily of all of them. Cases of the same kind continued to accumulate until April 30, 1917, when there were about 300 pending, and they were called up before the respondent John R. Newcomer. The cases being called up, an assistant of the relator said that he was about to enter a nolle prosequi in all cases in which the charge was a violation of section 259. There was considerable discussion between the assistant and the court as to whether there had been any investigation of the facts in those cases, in the course of which the court stated that a nolle prosequi would be allowed in every case that had been investigated and as to all those cases in which it was admitted there had been no investigation the nolle prosequi would be refused. Nothing further seems to have been done on that day. On May 14, 1917, there were further proceedings concerning the same cases, and of practically the same nature, before the respondent Newcomer, and on May 18, 1917, when there were pending about 400 cases, the case against Herbert Noon was selected and a nolle prosequi filed, which the court refused to enter. It was then stated to the court that all the cases had been investigated. The facts concerning such an investigation and the attitude of the relator toward the same were as follows:

There had been a considerable number of prosecutions before justices of the peace in the country districts outside of Chicago on complaint of individuals, and there had been a conviction in one case. The relator sent an assistant out to the justices and dismissed all those cases. The relator caused an index card system to be made up of cases of that kind in the municipal court and about 360 cards were prepared. Notices were sent to the defendants to appear before the relator and answer various questions, among which were their nationality and politics and their defenses to the accusations against them. There were 100 or more statements by the defendants to the questions, which statements were taken down and written by the relator's assistants. After this had been done an order was issued on May 2, 1917, to the commanding officers of the police force to direct policemen having violations of the section in charge to appear at the office of the relator on May 3. There were about 300 statements, signed by police officers and complaining witnesses, presented to the relator showing violations of the law. The relator presented to the grand jury the cases, and the grand jury voted ‘no bills,’ and made a very lengthy report giving the views of the grand jury as to the propriety of the relator prosecuting such cases. The conclusion stated by the grand jury was that the cases might be adequately dealt with otherwise than by criminal prosecutions; that they had inquired into the power of the mayor to revoke licenses and compared the penalty with the loss of a license, and had concluded that the state's attorney should not take his time in prosecuting such cases. A list of cases was given which had been examined by the grand jury, with the statement that they had not had time and deemed it useless to hear evidence in other cases, and the grand jury recommenced that the mayor should enforce the law and the relator should not spend his time in that way.

The statement signed by police officers and complaining witnesses showed clear violations of the law. The relator testified that he had never declared that he would not prosecute violations of section 259, but that he refused to prosecute them on account of the attitude of the people, generally, in Chicago, as shown by verdicts of juries in prosecutions conducted by a former state's attorney before the relator came into office, in 1912; that he viewed these prosecutions with suspicion because they were instituted without consultation with him; that he had been informed by Anton J. Cermak, chief bailiff of the municipal court, who was secretary of the United Societies, that the keepers of some saloons were prosecuted and others were not molested; that Cermak and his society were enemies of the law and engaged in preventing its enforcement; that he did not believe the cases were started in good faith; that in the prosecutions by the former state's attorney before 1912 the attorney representing the brewers had been successful in defeating the law by insisting that the people in Chicago were not in favor of it and that it was not in force there; that he sent all the cases pending before respondent Newcomer to the grand jury, and for these reasons he did not intend to prosecute the cases.

The petition alleged as a conclusion of law that the relator, by virtue of his office as state's attorney of Cook county, has an absolute right to enter a nolle prosequi in any criminal case and that the court acts in a purely ministerial capacity in entering the nolle prosequi and discharging the defendant, and this conclusion of the law was denied by the answer. The argument for the relator in support of the petition is that as state's attorney he possesses all the powers possessed by an Attorney General in England; that he has absolute power to enter a nolle prosequi in any criminal case at any time; that the court is not responsible in any manner for an abuse of the power, and that he is independent and absolutely free from judicial interference or control; that there is no requirement of law that he shall investigate the facts of any case and no power in the court to require him to give grounds or reasons for his action; and that such power of the state's attorney necessarily results from the adoption, by statute, of the common law of England so far as the same is applicable and of a general nature.

So far as the adoption of the common law is concerned, the power of the Attorney General in England was not a matter of substantive law but of practice and prerogative. He was the representative of the crown, and the power to enter a nolle prosequi in criminal cases which were set on foot by private persons was a prerogative of his office to which there was no limitation. Regina v. Allen, 1 Best & S. 850; Regina v. Dunn, 1 Car. & K. 730....