People v. Young, 78-113

• Decision Date: 27 July 1979
• Docket Number: No. 78-113,78-113
• Parties: , 30 Ill.Dec. 135 PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael A. YOUNG, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 790

392 N.E.2d 790

76 Ill.App.3d 210, 30 Ill.Dec. 135

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael A. YOUNG, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 78-113.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District.

July 27, 1979.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 15, 1979.

T. Jordan Gallagher, State's Atty., Sycamore, Phyllis J. Perko, Jan Tuckerman, State's Attys. Appellate Service Commission, Elgin, for plaintiff-appellant.

Mary Robinson, Deputy State Appellate Defender, Richard E. Cunningham, Asst. State Appellate Defender, Elgin, for defendant-appellee.

WOODWARD, Justice:

This case arises from a hit-and-run traffic accident. After the accident, two witnesses reported the license number of the car that left the scene. Police checked the registration of the vehicle, and called the owner in Arlington Heights, who said that his son, Michael, had the car at school. Police then called the son and asked him to come to the station to speak about the accident. Defendant arrived at the station within 48 hours of the accident; he was asked for his driver's license, which he surrendered. Police used the license to fill in parts of an accident form begun at the scene, and defendant was then advised of his Miranda rights. Police then asked some questions and used defendant's answers to further complete the accident form and prepare a follow-up report. Subsequently, defendant was charged with leaving the scene of an accident (Ill.Rev.Stat., 1977, ch. 951/2, par. 11-401(a)) and with driving too fast for conditions (Ill.Rev.Stat., 1977, ch. 951/2, par 11-601(a)). Defendant made a motion which was styled a motion to suppress the report and all statements he made to the police, the motion being based on Ill.Rev.Stat., 1977, ch. 951/2, par. 11-401(b), which provides in pertinent part:

"(b) Any person who has failed to stop or to comply with said requirements shall, within 48 hours after such accident * * * report the place of accident, the date, the approximate time, his name, address, the registration number of the vehicle driven, and the names of the occupants, if any, of such vehicle, at a police station or sheriff's office near the place where such accident occurred. No report made as required under this Subsection shall be used, directly or indirectly, as a basis for the prosecution of any violation of Subsection (a) of this Section."

After a hearing, defendant's motion was granted and the state appeals.

A threshold question is whether the state has the right to appeal from the order which suppressed the evidence. Supreme Court Rule 604(a)(1) (Ill.Rev.Stat., 1977, ch. 110A, par. 604(a)(1)) provides:

"When State May Appeal. In criminal cases the State may appeal only from an order or judgment the substantive effect of which results in dismissing a charge for any of the grounds enumerated in section 114-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963; arresting judgment because of a defective indictment, information or complaint; quashing an arrest or search warrant; Or suppressing evidence." (Emphasis ours.)

The state's right to take this appeal must arise from the "suppressing evidence" clause of Rule 604(a)(1).

The supreme court has stated that Rule 604 was not intended to give the state the right to an interlocutory appeal from every ruling excluding evidence offered by the prosecution. (People v. Van De Rostyne (1976), 63 Ill.2d 364, 349 N.E.2d 16.) This court has recently had the opportunity to interpret the Van De Rostyne case in People v. Young (1978), 60 Ill.App.3d 49, 17 Ill.Dec. 566, 376 N.E.2d 712. In that case we held that the supreme court had clearly stated that Rule 604 has application only to evidence alleged to have been obtained by means of an unlawful search and seizure and that the Rule was not intended to give the state a right to appeal from every ruling excluding evidence offered by it. In the Young case, however, the trial court's written order stated that the state's exhibits were being suppressed on constitutional grounds, but the court had stated orally that some of the exhibits were inadmissible on evidentiary grounds. Because of the confusion inherent in the inability to determine which exhibits may have been excluded solely on evidentiary grounds and review of which would therefore be precluded, this court, in fairness, vacated all orders excluding state's exhibits without prejudice to defendant or the state on remand. We note as a clarification that although Young stated that Rule 604 applies only to evidence allegedly obtained through unlawful search and seizure, the Rule also applies, as indicated in the other cases discussed herein, to involuntary confessions.

A similar situation occurred in People v. Eddington (1977), 47 Ill.App.3d 388, 5 Ill.Dec. 790, 362 N.E.2d 103. In that case, tape recordings were ruled inadmissible on both evidentiary and constitutional grounds. The Eddington court stated that a good practice would be that motions to suppress under sections 114-11 and 114-12 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Ill.Rev.Stat., 1975, ch. 38, pars. 114-11 and 114-12), dealing with involuntary confessions and evidence seized through unconstitutional search, should be presented and ruled on separately from motions to exclude or bar evidence for other reasons. However, the Fourth District determined that because the order to suppress was based partly on grounds of unconstitutional seizure, it was an appealable order under Rule 604(a)(1). The suppression order was...