Terry Stop, Investigatory Stop, Unlawful detention

People v. Gherna, January 24, 2003
325 Ill. App. 3d 157.
Opinion by McMORROW, C.J.
GARMAN and RARICK, JJ., took no part

In 1999, a woman was arrested in the parking lot of a Danville apartment
complex after she emptied her pockets in front of police, revealing a
baggie of cocaine. In the circuit court of Vermilion County, she was
charged with possession of a controlled substance. However, the trial
judge granted her motion to suppress the seized evidence. This brought
a halt to the proceedings in the circuit court. The State appealed,
complaining of impairment of its prosecution.

Defendant, Lynette Gherna, had been sitting in a truck with her
13-year-old daughter in an area in which police believed drug activities
took place. Two officers were patrolling on bicycles when they noticed
that there was beer in the vehicle and that the passenger appeared to be
very young. Stopping to investigate, they found defendant to be an
adult and the beer to be unopened, in its original container. In
scrutinizing these events later, the circuit court held that there had
initially been a valid investigatory Terry stop, but that it should have
terminated at this point, and the supreme court agreed. However, police
had then begun asking the defendant if there were drugs or weapons in
the vehicle, were told they were "free to look," and then asked the
woman to step outside the truck and talk to them beyond the presence of
her daughter. During these subsequent conversations, inquiring about
illegal drugs or narcotics, she emptied her pockets, revealing the
cocaine.

In this decision, the supreme court affirmed the suppression order,
finding that, once the initial authority to make an investigatory stop
to investigate possible underage drinking had terminated, any further
detention was unlawful. Any consent which the defendant purportedly
gave was tainted by the illegality of the detention, so the search could
not be viewed as consensual.