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People v. Batterman

Case Date: 02/18/2005
Court: 3rd District Appellate
Docket No: 3-04-0187 Rel

No. 3--04--0187

IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

THIRD DISTRICT

A.D., 2005

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF
ILLINOIS,
          Plaintiff-Appellant,

          v.  

HERBERT E. BATTERMAN,
          Defendant-Appellee.
 

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)		 Appeal from the Circuit Court
for the 21st Judicial Circuit,
Kankakee County, Illinois

No. 02-TR-18645

Honorable
J. Scott Swaim,
Judge, Presiding

JUSTICE O'BRIEN delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant Herbert Batterman was charged in both Will and Kankakee Counties with fleeing and eluding police, and other traffic offenses, as the result of a police chase which began in Will County and ended in Kankakee County. Batterman pled guilty to the Will County charges and was sentenced to 24 months' conditional discharge. He thereafter filed a motion to dismiss the fleeing-and-eluding charge in Kankakee County based on double jeopardy grounds. The trial court granted Batterman's motion and the State appealed. We affirm.

FACTS

On October 5, 2002, Batterman was involved in a high-speed chase with law enforcement officers that began in Will County and ended in Kankakee County. Batterman was subsequently charged in Will County with fleeing or attempting to elude a peace officer (625 ILCS 5/11-204 (West Supp. 2003)) and other offenses not at issue here. Batterman was charged in Kankakee County with the same offenses with which he was charged in Will County, including fleeing and eluding, as well as some additional offenses also not at issue here. Batterman pled guilty to the Will County charges and was sentenced to 24 months' conditional discharge. The sentence included fines totaling $570, 300 hours of public service work, compliance with a doctor's orders, participation in traffic school, and 75 hours of mandatory counseling. Thereafter, Batterman filed a motion to dismiss the charges in Kankakee County based on double jeopardy. Following a hearing on Batterman's motion, the trial court found that the charges violated the prohibition against double jeopardy and dismissed the charges. The State appealed.

ANALYSIS

The issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred when it determined that double jeopardy required the dismissal of the Kankakee County charges against Batterman. The State argues that the dismissal was in error because Batterman's act of fleeing and eluding constituted two offenses committed in two different counties against two different police agencies and that statutory authority exists for multiple prosecutions for the offense of fleeing and eluding. We review this issue de novo. Woods v. Cole, 181 Ill. 2d 512, 516, 693 N.E.2d 333, 335 (1998).

The double jeopardy clause of the United States Constitution provides that no person shall "be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb" and is applicable to the states through the fourteenth amendment. U.S. Const., amends. V, XIV. The Illinois Constitution similarly provides that "[n]o person shall *** be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense." Ill. Const. 1970, art. I,