THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DeANDREA JONES, Defendant-Appellant.
Docket No. 2-13-0387
Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District
March 17, 2015
Rehearing denied July 10, 2015
2015 IL App (2d) 130387
Hon. Val Gunnarsson, Judge, presiding.
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Carroll County, No. 12-CF-72. Judgment: Affirmed in part and reversed in part.
Scott L. Brinkmeier, State‘s Attorney, of Mt. Carroll (Lawrence M. Bauer and Barry W. Jacobs, both of State‘s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor‘s Office, of counsel), for the People.
JUSTICE McLAREN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.
Justices Hudson and Birkett concurred in the judgment and opinion.
OPINION
¶ 1 Following a jury trial, defendant, DeAndrea Jones, was convicted of aggravated battery to a pеace officer (
¶ 2 Defendant was charged with aggravated battery and obstructing. He was also charged with domestic battery by making contact of an insulting or provoking nature with Susanne Guzman. That charge was severed before trial and is not at issue here.
¶ 3 At trial, Phillip Small testified that on December 16, 2013, he was on his front porch when he saw a man get dropped off at a house across the street. The man, defendant, who appeared to have been drinking, crawled up the stairs. Small
¶ 4 Savannа police officer John Loechel testified that he responded to a report of a “physical domestic.” He saw Small standing in the doorway of his house. Small pointed across the street, where Loechel saw defendant and Guzman on the porch arguing. The porch was enclosed, with several windows and a screen door. Loechel knocked on the door and identified himself as a police officer. He opened the door, announced that he was there to investigate a domestic disturbance, and asked what the problem was. Defendant informed Loechel that there was no problem.
¶ 5 Loechel told defendant that there would not be arguing if there were no problem. He asked defendant to step outside to discuss the situation, but defendant refused. In response to several such requests, defendant asserted that it was his house and that Loechel needed to leave. Defendant continued swearing at Loechel.
¶ 6 Loechel testified that he was concerned about the safety of all involved at that point. He could smell alcohol coming from both parties, and he did not know whether anyone else was inside the house.
¶ 7 Defendant then started walking baсk toward the main door of the house. Loechel grabbed his arm and tried to arrest him. Defendant started pushing and pulling away, so Loechel took him to the ground. Defendant began to kick the officer repeatedly. Loechel told him to stop resisting and that he was under arrest for resisting.
¶ 8 At some point, Guzman rаn over, yelling at Loechel to get off of defendant and pushing him. Loechel grabbed her arm and took her down also. He then pushed defendant out through the porch door. Outside in the yard the struggle continued, with Loechel trying to get defendant into handcuffs. Defendant tried to get Loechel into a headlоck. Loechel got loose and drew his firearm, then backed away to catch his breath. Defendant continued swearing at him and started to walk back toward the house. Loechel holstered his firearm and followed defendant back toward the house. Additional officers eventually arrived to helр with the arrest. Deputy Koepping tased defendant twice and he was eventually taken into custody.
¶ 9 The jury found defendant guilty on both counts and the trial court sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment. Defendant timely appeals.
¶ 10 Defendant contends that the State did not prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of obstructing. He notes that a conviction of obstructing requires that the officer be engaged in an “authorized act” within his official capacity.
¶ 11 Defendant was convicted of violating section 31-1 of the Criminal Code of 1961, which provides that one who “knowingly resists or obstructs the performance by one known to the person to be a peace officer *** of any authorized act within his official capacity commits a Class A misdemeanor.”
¶ 12 Here, the act that defendant was charged with obstructing was Loechel‘s entry onto (or remaining on) defendant‘s porch. If Loechel‘s conduct violated the fourth amendment, it was unauthorized and defendant could not be convicted оf obstructing it. Thus, we consider whether Loechel‘s entry onto the porch and remaining there to continue his investigation were permitted by the fourth amendment.
¶ 13 The fourth amendment guarantees “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasоnable searches and seizures.”
¶ 14 Defendant essentially concedes that Loechel‘s initial entry onto the porch was authorized. Loechel had just received a credible report of a loud argument, including the sound of things breaking, at defendant‘s residence. Loechel saw two people arguing on the porch as he approached the house. Defendant appeared extremely intoxicated and belligerent. Thus, Loechel was authorized to at least step onto the porch to see whether Guzman was injured or needed assistance. See Sneed v. Howell, 306 Ill. App. 3d 1149, 1159 (1999) (Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986 (
¶ 15 Defendant contends, however, that once defendant assured Loechel that there was “no problem,” Loechel observed that Guzman was not visibly injured, and she did not request his assistance, he was obligated to respect defendant‘s request that he leave the premises. We agree.
¶ 16 While Loechel was undoubtedly authorized to conduct some initial investigation, in doing so he found no evidence of domestic violence, or of any other offense for that matter. The report that prompted the investigation stated only that a
¶ 17 This case is unlike People v. Santana, 121 Ill. App. 3d 265 (1984). There, officers responded to a late-night call reporting that a domestic quarrel was occurring in an apartment, that a woman had been injured, and that a weapon might be involved. When they heard the sounds of argument and а dish breaking in the defendant‘s apartment, the officers approached the door and noticed that it had been damaged as though by forcible entry. They knocked on the door and, when the defendant opened it, inquired whether there was a problem; they saw that the defendant was agitated and hаd blood on his hand and that the woman behind him had blood on her face and blouse. The defendant then slammed the door shut. Id. at 266. The officers entered the apartment. On appeal, the defendant argued that, because he and the woman had told the officers that they could not enter, the entry was unlawful. Wе rejected the defendant‘s argument, concluding that the officers had reasonable grounds to believe that a crime was being committed and that the defendant was involved. Id. at 269. Moreover, we held that exigent circumstances authorized the warrantless entry. Id. at 268-70.
¶ 18 In Santana, the door was broken and both parties had blоod on them. No such facts were present here, as both parties appeared uninjured. We thus reverse defendant‘s conviction of obstructing a peace officer.
¶ 19 We note, however, that defendant‘s argument applies only to his conviction of obstructing. Defendant was also convicted of aggravated battery to a peace officer, which requires only that the officer be performing his official duties (see
¶ 20 Defendant next contends that the trial court should have sua sponte instructed the jury on self-defense as a defense to aggravated battery. Defendant acknowledges that he forfeited this contention by fаiling to raise it in a posttrial motion. See People v. Sargent, 239 Ill. 2d 166, 188-89 (2010). He thus argues that we should invoke the plain-error exception to the forfeiture rule. See
¶ 21 The plain-error doctrine bypasses normal forfeiture principles and allows a reviewing court to consider unpreserved error where either: (1) a clear or obvious error occurs and the evidence is so
¶ 22 Consistent with the plain-error rule, Rule 451(c) provides that, where a jury instruction suffers from a substantial defect, clаims of error are not subject to forfeiture on appeal. The erroneous omission of an instruction constitutes a substantial defect, or plain error, when the omission created a serious risk that the defendant was incorrectly convicted because the jury did not understand the applicable law, so as to threaten the fundamental fairness of the defendant‘s trial. People v. Hopp, 209 Ill. 2d 1, 8 (2004).
¶ 23 Defendant acknowledges the rules that one may not resist even an unlawful arrest (see
¶ 24 Defendant cites evidence that Loechel grabbed his arm and twisted it. Then, when dеfendant continued to pull away from him, Loechel took him to the ground. Defendant fails to explain how the arrest could have been accomplished with a lesser degree of force.
¶ 25 People v. Sims, 374 Ill. App. 3d 427 (2007), on which defendant relies, is plainly distinguishable. There, evidence showed that the defendant generally cooperated with the officers until, after being arrested and placed in a squad car, his girlfriend, holding their baby, approached the car and began talking to the defendant. They got into an argument and an officer either told her to back away (according to the officer) or “‘nudged‘” her (acсording to the defendant). Id. at 429-30. In any event, the defendant became upset and began banging on the window of the squad car. The officers then removed the defendant from the car. The defendant testified that the officers threw him face-first to the ground, placed a knee or elbow against his neck, and threw him into the back of the car, where an officer began hitting him in the ribs. He added that he was again dragged out of the car and “‘roughed *** up‘” by several officers. Id. at 430. Photographs admitted at trial showed that the defendant‘s face was extremely swollen, his right eye was swollen completely shut, and he sustained numerous сuts, scrapes, and bruises. Id. at 435. The reviewing court found that there was sufficient evidence of excessive force such that the defendant was entitled to his requested instruction on self-defense. Id.
¶ 26 There was no similar evidence of excessive force here. Rather, the evidence overwhelmingly showed that defendant was belligerent and combative from the beginning of the encounter. When it was clear that defendant would not cooperate, Loechel merely grabbed his arm and tackled him, which was necessary to effect the arrest. Moreover, unlike in Sims, defendant did not request a self-defense instruсtion. To hold that the trial court was required, sua sponte, to instruct the jury
¶ 27 Defendant‘s real argument seems to be that, because Loechel unlawfully remained at his home, all his subsequent acts were tainted, entitling defendant to resist them by any force necessary. This is not the law. Once Loechel attempted to arrest defendant, defendant was not entitled to resist.
¶ 28 The judgment of the circuit court of Carroll County is affirmed in part and reversed in part.
¶ 29 Affirmed in part and reversed in part.