People v. Cardamone

• Decision Date: 14 February 2008
• Docket Number: No. 2-06-0117.,2-06-0117.
• Citation: 883 N.E.2d 628,379 Ill.App.3d 656
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Michael P. CARDAMONE, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

883 N.E.2d 628

379 Ill.App.3d 656

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Michael P. CARDAMONE, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 2-06-0117.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District.

February 14, 2008.

As Corrected April 10, 2008.

Thomas A. Lilien, Deputy Defender, and Mark G. Levine (Court-appointed), Office of the State Appellate Defender, Elgin, for Michael P. Cardamone.

Joseph E. Birkett, Du Page County State's Attorney, Lisa Anne Hoffman, Assistant State's Attorney, Wheaton, Lawrence M. Bauer, Deputy Director, Mary Beth Burns, State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, Elgin, for the People.

Justice CALLUM delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a bench trial, defendant, Michael P. Cardamone, was convicted of harassment of a witness (720 ILCS 5/32-4a(a) (West 2000)). The trial court denied defendant's motion for a new trial and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment. The court subsequently denied defendant's motion to reconsider his sentence. Defendant appeals, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence for his conviction. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Defendant was charged by indictment with two counts of harassment of a witness and three counts of disorderly conduct (making a false police report) (720 ILCS 5/26-1(a)(4) (West 2000)). All counts arose from a single incident that was alleged to have occurred on July 7, 2004. As to the witness-harassment count upon which he was ultimately convicted, the State alleged that defendant, with the intent to harass or annoy Teresa Eason, a potential witness in a pending legal proceeding against defendant, communicated indirectly with her in that he placed a 911 call and falsely reported that Eason committed or was committing traffic offenses. The call resulted in a police officer effecting a traffic stop in such a manner as to produce mental anguish and emotional distress for Eason.

At trial, Eason testified that her 10-year-old daughter, C.E., was named as a victim in a prosecution against defendant in Du Page County and that both Eason and her daughter were potential witnesses in that proceeding. Both later testified in the proceeding. Eason knew defendant because her daughter attended a gymnasium where defendant was the head gymnastics coach. According to Eason, on July 7, 2004, she attended a hearing at the Du Page County courthouse in the other proceeding. After the hearing, Eason left the courthouse ahead of defendant. She was alone. From the courthouse, Eason drove her Dodge minivan on Roosevelt Road to Winfield Road. She turned onto Butterfield Road from Winfield and then turned south onto Eola Road, west onto McCoy, and north onto Cheshire Town, the street where she lived.

At a stoplight on Butterfield at Route 59, Eason took down her visor to fix her lipstick. She saw in the mirror that defendant and his wife, Elizabeth, were in a vehicle immediately behind her. Eason recognized defendant's wife from the gymnasium. Defendant was driving, and his wife was in the front passenger seat. According to Eason, after the light at Butterfield and Route 59, defendant and his wife remained behind her. Eason continued to observe them. While Eason was driving on Eola Road, between Butterfield and North Aurora Roads, defendant drove up next to her in the right lane. Defendant and Elizabeth looked at Eason. They then dropped back and drove behind Eason's vehicle. While driving on Eola Road, defendant's vehicle was close to Eason's; no other vehicle could come between them. At that point, Eason was "very conscious" that defendant and Elizabeth were following her; she was nervous.

After they passed North Aurora Road, Eason observed that defendant and Elizabeth were laughing. This made Eason uncomfortable.

Eason denied that she ever swerved her vehicle out of its lane while driving on Butterfield or Eola. She also denied jerking her vehicle while in her lane. Eason testified that she drove steadily and smoothly; she did not speed. As Eason approached McCoy, she changed lanes to get into the right lane to turn onto McCoy. She used her signal to indicate that she was about to change lanes. Eason denied that she cut off any vehicles when she changed lanes. Defendant's vehicle stayed in the left lane. When Eason turned right off of Eola, she passed a slow-moving car. Eason denied that she speeded or swerved while driving on McCoy. While driving on McCoy, as she approached Cheshire, police lights went on behind her. It was about 10:40 a.m. Eason pulled over on Cheshire. The police car was the slow-moving, unmarked vehicle she had passed.

The police officer approached Eason and told her that there had been a call that she was driving erratically and may have been drinking. Eason told the officer that she knew who had made that call: "The man who is charged with sexual[ly] abusing my daughter has been following me all the way home. And he is the only one that would have called the police." The officer asked Eason if she had anything to drink or a bottle. She told him she had none and invited him to search her vehicle. The officer looked inside the van.

Eason further testified that, during the stop, she was "extremely nervous and scared from the following home." She stated that her "heart drop[ped] like it always does when a police officer—even when you know you didn't do anything wrong, you think what did I do." Eason explained that it was "nerve wracking. And then once I pulled over and he came up and told me why he was pulling me over, probably a little bit of anger, quite a bit of anger then that this was happening." Eason stated that she was "upset and scared and angry."

Eason further testified that the police officer treated her appropriately and courteously. He did not accuse Eason of doing anything wrong. He was "professional." The officer did not ask her to get out of her vehicle or to perform any sobriety tests. Eason denied that she had consumed alcohol within the previous 12 hours. The entire police encounter lasted about 5 to 10 minutes.

Michael Auld, the officer who stopped Eason on July 7, 2004, testified that at about 10:30 a.m. that day he received a general dispatch that someone had called to report a driver possibly under the influence on Eola Road. The caller had described a maroon minivan driving south on Eola from Butterfield. The caller had also given the license plate number and stated that the driver was female and that there possibly was open alcohol in the car. The license plate number Auld recorded from the dispatch matched the one he later observed.

Auld was traveling west on McCoy Drive, east of Eola, when he observed the minivan at a stoplight on southbound Eola, waiting to turn right onto McCoy. Auld slowed down and let the minivan pass him. He followed it for about half a mile and observed no erratic driving or traffic violations. As the van approached Cheshire, Auld activated his police lights to pull it over. Auld testified that he approached the van and asked Eason for her license and proof of insurance. He did not ask Eason to perform any sobriety tests because he did not see any evidence of alcohol consumption or of being under the influence of alcohol. Eason opened the sliding door of the minivan for Auld, and Auld did not find any container inside. He did not perform a full search of her vehicle. Auld wore a uniform that day and drove in an unmarked police car.

Eason informed Auld that a car had been following her and had pulled up next to her at one point. Auld did not raise his voice to Eason and treated her in a professional manner.

Elizabeth testified for the defense that, on July 7, 2004, she, defendant, and their seven-month-old son drove to the courthouse in their sport utility vehicle (SUV), a GMC Envoy, for a hearing involving criminal charges that were pending against defendant. They lived in Aurora, about two miles south of the intersection of Eola and McCoy. For one year leading up to the incident with Eason, defendant and his wife drove the following route most of the time to the courthouse: Hafenrichter to Eola to Butterfield to Winfield to Roosevelt to County Farm Road. This is the direct route from their home to the courthouse. According to Elizabeth, prior to July 7, 2004, she had observed Eason in an automobile on only one occasion, about one year earlier.

After their court appearance on July 7, 2004, the Cardamones retrieved their SUV from the courthouse parking garage to go home. Defendant drove, and Elizabeth sat in the back seat with their son. Elizabeth sat in the middle. They drove west on Butterfield and turned south on Eola. They did not see Eason when they left the courthouse parking garage.

Elizabeth did not see any vehicles or people she knew at either the intersection of Butterfield and Route 59 or the intersection of Butterfield and Eola. Eola is four lanes wide. When they turned onto Eola from Butterfield, defendant drove into the right lane in order to pass a minivan in front of him. That vehicle then drove into the right lane, and defendant drove into the left lane to pass the van. The van then came back into the left lane and defendant again drove into the right lane. The van then drove back into the right lane. Elizabeth became "fearful" and told defendant to call 911 because she thought that she had observed the driver drinking, using his or her right hand to bring something to his or her mouth. Elizabeth could not tell if the driver was a man or a woman because the minivan's windows were tinted.

Elizabeth further testified that she had not previously observed the vehicle in front of them. Defendant told the 911 operator that they were observing someone on the road and that they had observed the person drinking. He did not give his name. When defendant made the call, they were on Eola north of Interstate 88. After they drove over the interstate, at Diehl Road, defendant and Elizabeth decided to look inside the minivan. They drove up to it, and Elizabeth saw...