People v. Dilworth

• Decision Date: 18 January 1996
• Docket Number: No. 78274,78274
• Citation: 661 N.E.2d 310,214 Ill.Dec. 456,169 Ill.2d 195
• Parties: , 214 Ill.Dec. 456, 64 USLW 2505, 107 Ed. Law Rep. 226 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellant, v. Kenneth DILWORTH, Appellee.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 310

661 N.E.2d 310

169 Ill.2d 195, 214 Ill.Dec. 456, 64

USLW 2505,

107 Ed. Law Rep. 226

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellant, v. Kenneth DILWORTH, Appellee.

No. 78274.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Jan. 18, 1996.

Certiorari Denied May 13, 1996.

See 116 S.Ct. 1692.

Roland Burris and James Ryan, Attorneys General, Springfield, and James W. Glasgow, State's Attorney, Joliet (Norbert J. Goetten, John X. Breslin and Lawrence M. Kaschak, of the Office of the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, Ottawa, of counsel), for the People.

Robert Agostinelli, Deputy Defender, and Peter A. Carusona, Assistant Defender, of the Office of the State Appellate Defender, Ottawa, for appellee.

Chief Justice BILANDIC delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a bench trial in the circuit court of Will County, defendant, Kenneth Dilworth, was convicted of unlawful possession of a controlled substance (cocaine) with intent to deliver while on school property (Ill.Rev.Stat.1991, ch. 56 1/2, par. 1407(b)(2)). The circuit court had earlier denied defendant's motion to suppress evidence. The appellate court reversed defendant's conviction, finding that his motion to suppress evidence should have been granted. (267 Ill.App.3d 155, 203 Ill.Dec. 859, 640 N.E.2d 1009.) We allowed the State's petition for leave to appeal (145 Ill.2d R. 315) and now reverse the appellate court.

FACTS

Defendant was a 15-year-old student at the Joliet Township High Schools Alternate School. The Alternate School is unlike a regular public school in that only students with behavioral disorders attend it. A little more than 100 students attended the school at the relevant times.

According to the Alternate School handbook, which was admitted into evidence, the goal of the school's program is to create an environment that will allow students to modify their behavior in a positive direction. Students who improve their behavior are allowed to return to regular school. The school staff was listed as consisting of 11 teachers, four paraprofessionals, one social worker, one psychologist, one counselor, and, significantly, one liaison officer.

The liaison officer was Detective Francis Ruettiger. Ruettiger was a police officer employed by the Joliet police department and was assigned full-time to the Alternate School as a member of its staff. His primary purpose at the school was to prevent criminal activity. If he discovered criminal activity, he had the authority to arrest the offender and transport the offender to the police station. Ruettiger also handled some disciplinary problems. Like the teachers, Ruettiger was authorized to give a detention, but not a suspension. Only the school principal and the director could suspend a student.

On November 18, 1992, two teachers asked Ruettiger to search a student, Deshawn Weeks, for possession of drugs. The teachers informed Ruettiger that they had overheard Weeks telling other students that he had sold some drugs and would bring more drugs with him to school the following day. The next day, Ruettiger searched Weeks' person in his office and found nothing. He then escorted Weeks back to his locker.

Defendant and Weeks met at their neighboring lockers. According to Ruettiger, the two adolescents began talking and giggling "like they put one over on [him]." Ruettiger further testified that they turned toward him and they were "looking, laughing at [him] like [he] was played for a fool." Ruettiger noticed a flashlight in defendant's hand and immediately thought that it might contain drugs. He grabbed the flashlight from defendant, unscrewed the top, and observed a bag containing a white chunky substance underneath the flashlight batteries. The substance later tested positive for the presence of cocaine. Defendant ran from the scene, but was captured by Ruettiger and transported to the police station. While there, defendant gave a statement admitting that he intended to sell the cocaine because he was tired of being poor.

Ruettiger explained that he had two reasons for seizing and searching the flashlight. He was suspicious that the flashlight contained drugs. Secondly, Ruettiger believed it was a violation of school rules to possess a flashlight on school grounds because a flashlight is a "blunt instrument." The school's disciplinary guidelines, of which all students must be informed when they enroll, prohibited the possession of "any object that can be construed to be a weapon." Ruettiger had never seen a student with a flashlight at the school before. He admitted, however, that students were never specifically informed that flashlights were prohibited. Also, he did not consider a flashlight to be "contraband per se."

Ruettiger further related that he had daily contact with each student at the Alternate School. Although he did not talk with each student individually every day, he did go into each classroom. Prior to arresting defendant, Ruettiger saw defendant during school several times a day and had always gotten along with him pretty well. On one occasion, two weeks before the arrest, a teacher had suspected defendant of selling drugs in class and asked Ruettiger to search him. Ruettiger did so and found nothing. At that time, defendant told Ruettiger that he did not have any drugs, but named another student who did. A search of the other student revealed marijuana and resulted in the student's arrest.

Defendant's teacher, Danica Grabavoy, testified that sometime soon after defendant was enrolled in the Alternate School, she reviewed the entire school handbook with him and his guardian. Among other things, the handbook explains the school's policies and disciplinary guidelines. On a page entitled "Alternate School Search Procedures," the handbook states:

"To protect the security, safety, and rights of other students and the staff at the Alternate School, we will search students. This search may include the student's person, his/her belongings, and school locker. Search procedures may result from suspicions generated from direct observation or from information received from a third party.

Search is done to protect the safety of students. However, if in the process any illegal items or controlled substances are found in a search, these items and the student will be turned over to the police." (Emphasis in original.)

Prior to trial, defendant moved to suppress the evidence found in his flashlight. He argued that Ruettiger's seizure and search of the flashlight violated the fourth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution. The circuit court conducted a hearing in which it denied the motion. The court found that Ruettiger was acting as an agent for the staff of the Alternate School when he seized and searched the flashlight. Noting that the school staff must deal with difficult students, the court held that the proper fourth amendment standard to apply in this case was the reasonable suspicion standard for searches of students by school officials (New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985), 469 U.S. 325, 105 S.Ct. 733, 83 L.Ed.2d 720), rather than the general standard of probable cause. Alternatively, the court found that even if Ruettiger was acting as a police officer, he had "reasonable cause" to believe that the flashlight contained contraband.

Defendant was tried as an adult in a stipulated bench trial. The circuit court found defendant guilty and sentenced him as an adult to the minimum four-year term of imprisonment.

As previously noted, the appellate court reversed defendant's conviction outright based on its holding that his motion to suppress evidence should have been granted. The appellate court agreed with the lower court that the reasonable suspicion standard applied; however, it found that Ruettiger did not have reasonable suspicion to seize and search the flashlight. In the appellate court's opinion, Ruettiger had only a mere "hunch" that the flashlight contained drugs.

ANALYSIS

The State contends that the circuit court properly denied defendant's motion to suppress evidence for two reasons: (1) Ruettiger properly seized the flashlight as contraband because defendant's possession of the flashlight violated the school's disciplinary guidelines; and (2) Ruettiger had reasonable suspicion, as well as probable cause if required, to seize and search the flashlight. Defendant responds that Ruettiger's seizure and search of his flashlight contravened the fourth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution.

Generally, a circuit court's ruling on a motion to suppress evidence is subject to reversal only if manifestly erroneous. (People v. James (1994), 163 Ill.2d 302, 310, 206 Ill.Dec. 190, 645 N.E.2d 195.) Here, however, neither the facts nor the credibility of witnesses is questioned. We therefore find it proper to conduct de novo review in this cause. See James, 163 Ill.2d at 310, 206 Ill.Dec. 190, 645 N.E.2d 195, quoting People v. Foskey (1990), 136 Ill.2d 66, 76, 143 Ill.Dec. 257, 554 N.E.2d 192.

The fourth amendment to the United States Constitution provides that the Federal government shall not violate "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures * * *." (U.S. Const., amend. IV.) The fundamental purpose of this amendment is to safeguard the privacy and security of individuals against arbitrary invasions by governmental officials. (Camara v. Municipal Court (1967), 387 U.S. 523, 528, 87 S.Ct. 1727, 1730, 18 L.Ed.2d 930, 935.) The due process clause of the fourteenth amendment (U.S. Const., amend. XIV) extended this constitutional guarantee to searches and seizures conducted by State officials. Elkins v. United States (1960), 364 U.S. 206, 213, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1442, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669, 1675.

I

In New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985), 469 U.S. 325, 105 S.Ct. 733, 83 L.Ed.2d 720, the United States Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of searches of students by teachers...