People v. Verdone
| Decision Date | 05 June 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 60403,60403 |
| Citation | 88 Ill.Dec. 905,479 N.E.2d 925,107 Ill.2d 25 |
| Parties | , 88 Ill.Dec. 905 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois v. Jack VERDONE et al., Appellees (J. Michael Fitzsimmons, State's Attorney, Appellant). |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Neil F. Hartigan, Atty. Gen., Jill Wine-Banks, Sol. Gen., Mark L. Rotert and Jack Donatelli, Asst. Attys. Gen., Chicago, for plaintiff-appellant.
Terry Sullivan, Nancy J. Nicol, Law Offices of Terry Sullivan, Ltd., Rolling Meadows, for defendants-appellees.
J. Michael Fitzsimmons, State's Atty. for DuPage County, Barbara A. Preiner, Asst. State's Atty., Supervisor of Appeals, Wheaton, for plaintiff-petitioner.
Respondent, J. Michael Fitzsimmons, State's Attorney, appealed from the judgment of the circuit court of DuPage County finding him in contempt for failure to comply with an order directing him to produce and turn over to defendants, Jack Verdone and Julie Hill, certain search warrants issued in other cases and the complaints upon which those search warrants were based. The court imposed a fine of $100. The appellate court affirmed in a Rule 23 order (87 Ill.2d R. 23; 123 Ill.App.3d 1157, 89 Ill.Dec. 239, 479 N.E.2d 1245), and we allowed the respondent's petition for leave to appeal (94 Ill.2d R. 315(a)).
On the complaint and affidavit of Officer Thomas P. Andricopoulos of the organized crime division, narcotics section, Chicago police department, search warrants were issued for premises occupied by defendant Verdone. In execution of the warrant, premises at 261 Park Lane in Roselle, in Du Page County, were searched, and cocaine and other controlled substances were seized. In indictments returned by the grand jury defendants were charged with unlawful delivery of a controlled substance (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 56 1/2, pars. 1401(a)(2), 1401(a)(9)) and unlawful delivery of cannabis (Ill.Rev.Stat.1981, ch. 56 1/2, par. 705(d)).
In the complaint for the search warrant Officer Andricopoulos stated that he had received information from a reliable police informant whom he had known for two years; that during this time the informant had given him information on 30 separate occasions, all pertaining to illegal drugs; that all 30 raids resulted in the recovery of controlled substances, marijuana and illegal weapons; that all the recovered controlled substances and marijuana were taken to the Chicago police department crime laboratory for expert analysis and were subsequently classified "positive" in all 30 cases; that the informant had told him that he was in defendant Verdone's home on the evening of June 17, 1982, and had purchased from him a quantity of cocaine; that while there defendant asked him to come into his office and that he observed through the open door of a large walk-in closet a large clear plastic bag contained in a safe and that the bag contained one-ounce bags of cocaine; that the informant opened a bag and examined the cocaine; that he paid Verdone $2,200 for the cocaine which he had agreed to purchase; that defendant Verdone had offered to sell him Quaaludes; that in a drawer he had seen additional one-ounce-size bags of white powder; that the informer has been a user of cocaine for more than five years, knows the effects of quality cocaine, and that the cocaine sold by defendant Verdone is of excellent quality.
Defendants filed a motion to quash the search warrant and suppress physical evidence. In their amended motion defendants alleged that the complainant for the search warrant did not corroborate the hearsay statements of the unnamed informant to verify the truth of the statements; that defendants denied each and every allegation of illegal actions contained in the complaint; and that the information was not true. Defendants also alleged that the affidavit was knowingly and intentionally false or made with reckless disregard for the truth. Defendants requested an evidentiary hearing and an order to produce the alleged informant "in order to prove by a preponderance of the evidence the truthfulness of petitioners' affidavit and offer of proof." The circuit court held that defendants were entitled to an evidentiary hearing.
The circuit court ordered a rule to show cause to issue against the superintendent of the Chicago police department and others for their failure to comply with a subpoena duces tecum previously issued directing them to appear and testify and bring with them "all search warrants and complaints wherein the alleged informant described in the complaint was involved in providing information to the police," and all "street files" relative to the defendants and the informant. After several delays an assistant State's Attorney appeared before the court and stated that he had in his possession the documents described in the rule and requested that the court examine them in camera. The court ruled that the documents must be provided to defendants, and upon his refusal to deliver them to defendants, the assistant State's Attorney was found to be in contempt of court and the fine imposed. On his motion, the State's Attorney was substituted for the assistant State's Attorney as the party defendant.
The appellate court held that, upon the record before it, it could not review the correctness of the underlying order and was required to assume that defendants had made the necessary "threshold showing that a hearing must be held." The court recognized that there is authority in this jurisdiction that, under certain circumstances, a circuit court, in its discretion, may require that an informant be identified, or even produced in court. The appellate court pointed out that the circuit court had not required the disclosure of the identity of the informant; that the record does not show that the informant was identified in the requested documents; and that there is no indication in the record that disclosure would endanger the safety of the informant. The appellate court concluded that "under the unique procedural and factual circumstances presented in the record before us," having determined that defendants were entitled to an evidentiary hearing, the circuit court did not abuse its discretion in ordering disclosure to defendants of the requested search warrants and the complaints upon which they were issued.
The respondent contends that the decision of this appeal requires a review of the correctness of the order upon which the contempt judgment was based. He argues that, while sanctions are a proper means to enforce a discovery order, their imposition requires a valid discovery order, and if the order was invalid, the contempt judgment must be reversed. He argues that the order to deliver the documents was invalid for the reason that the circuit court...
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...at 773, 170 Ill.Dec. 685, 593 N.E.2d 574), and that need must be more than a mere desire to cross-examine. People v. Verdone (1985), 107 Ill.2d 25, 31, 88 Ill.Dec. 905, 479 N.E.2d 925; see People v. Rodriguez (1983), 119 Ill.App.3d 575, 578, 75 Ill.Dec. 168, 456 N.E.2d 989. Initially, we ac......
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...it is said, was improperly violated. If the order were invalid, the contempt judgment must be reversed. People v. Verdone (1985), 107 Ill.2d 25, 30, 88 Ill.Dec. 905, 479 N.E.2d 925; People ex rel. Scott v. Silverstein (1981), 87 Ill.2d 167, 174, 57 Ill.Dec. 585, 429 N.E.2d Chancey argues th......
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...reckless disregard for the truth. (113 Ill.App.3d 449, 455-56, 69 Ill.Dec. 209, 447 N.E.2d 426; see also People v. Verdone (1985), 107 Ill.2d 25, 30, 88 Ill.Dec. 905, 479 N.E.2d 925.) Absent any attack by the defendant on the veracity of the statements in the affidavit, the statements must ......