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Recent Blog Posts
A New Year Means New Laws in Illinois
At the beginning of each new year, the state of Illinois enacts a number of new laws that impact nearly every aspect of people’s lives throughout the state. From divorce to nursing teen mothers, the Illinois legislature considered a wide variety of areas affecting citizens. We are using this space to summarize some changes to the Illinois criminal code and traffic safety laws.
Safe Driving
Every year, private citizens and automobile dealers, both new and used, attempt to sell vehicles. A new law in Illinois hopes to make taking test drives a little bit safer. House Bill 733 (HB 733) requires that no vehicle leaves a lot with stickers, price tags, or other notices affixed to the car’s windows that reduce visibility for the driver. This new law also applies to privately owned cars, which can no longer be operated on Illinois roads with a “for sale” sign displayed in the windshield.
Breath Testing Following Arrest for DUI: Facts and Rights
In the unfortunate event that you are stopped by the police and accused of driving under the influence, you should be aware of the types of tests that you may be asked to undergo and understand the consequences of agreeing versus refusing to undergo these tests.
The three types of tests are field sobriety tests, portable breath tests, and evidentiary breath tests. The first two types of tests are conducted at roadside and are used, along with a police officer’s other observations, to determine if the officer has probable cause to place you under arrest. This post will focus on the post-arrest evidentiary tests.
Understanding the Types of Evidentiary Tests for DUI
If you are arrested for DUI, you will be taken to a police station and asked to submit to evidentiary testing. Officers will perform chemical testing of your breath, blood, urine, or other bodily substance to determine your blood-alcohol content (BAC) or the presence of other intoxicants. Most commonly, a stationary or desktop breathalyzer machine will be used. Urine testing at the police station or blood testing at a hospital are other common testing techniques.
Adults and Teen Brawl at High School Wrestling Meet
Sporting events have the ability to bring out the competitive nature in most people, and this is fine if they are the actual competitors. However, when spectators allow the excitement and intensity of sports to impair their judgment, leading them to commit criminal acts, they can find themselves in an embarrassing and expensive legal predicament.
Rivalry Seeps into the Bleachers
Police in the southwest suburban city of Joliet were called to a local high school in November regarding a report of a fight in the stands among spectators attending a wrestling match between two local high school teams. Information from the incident seemed to indicate that fans from both teams were arguing when a member of one of the teams attempted to intervene. The following facts were reported:
- A visiting fan became “very vocal” and was confronted by parents of the home team.
Should You Refuse a Portable Breath Test During a DUI Investigation
In the unfortunate event that you are stopped by the police and accused of driving under the influence, you should be aware of the types of tests that you may be asked to undergo and understand the consequences of submitting to or refusing these tests.
The three types of tests are field sobriety tests, portable breath tests, and evidentiary breath tests. This post will focus on portable breath tests (PBTs), sometimes called preliminary breath tests or portable breathalyzers. PBTs are conducted at the site of the traffic stop. The police will consider the PBT result along with field sobriety tests and other observations to determine whether or not arrest you for DUI.
Understanding the Portable Breath Test (PBT)
A portable breath test is conducted with a handheld device. These devices are not as accurate as the desktop devices used for the so-called evidentiary tests which occur following an arrest
One important thing to remember is that the police are required to ask for your consent before administering a PBT, and they must give you sufficient time to refuse. An officer’s failure to give you the opportunity to refuse can, by itself, be cause to invalidate an arrest based on that PBT, as decided in a 2016 Illinois court ruling.
Property Seizure May Occur In Illinois Even if There is No Conviction
Many people may not know this until it is too late, but police in Illinois can seize your property even if you have not been convicted of a crime. Asset forfeiture can result in the loss of your car, home, or other possessions while creating a major burden for you and your family.
Civil Asset Forfeiture
Authorities expanded the application and use of forfeiture laws while engaged in the “War on Drugs” with criminal drug kingpins during the 1980s. The strategy was to cripple a criminal organization by taking possession of cars, trucks, boats, homes, and other assets found to be used in the manufacturing, storage, transportation, or distribution of illegal drugs.
Now, however, innocent citizens are finding themselves inconvenienced, because under the law, police can take possession of and keep property they suspect may have been involved in the commission of a crime. This can take place even if the person who owns the property was not involved in the alleged crime. For example, a 70-year-old woman lost her car for five months when it was seized by police. The car was being driven by her grandson when he was arrested for driving on a revoked license.
Opioid Use Still on the Rise
The use of opioids such as heroin, hydrocodone, morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl can be extremely dangerous. These opium-derived drugs are highly addictive and are almost impossible to quit once a person has become dependent on them. Often, a person becomes addicted to opioids after an injury or illness necessitates the use of pain management medicine. For example, a person may be originally prescribed a pain pill such as Percocet to be taken for a finite amount of time. When the pills run out, the person can no longer function without them and therefore seeks illegal means of finding relief. The terms “opiate” and “narcotic” are sometimes used interchangeably with the word “opioid.”
Deadly Addiction
Tragically, opiate overdoses result in thousands of deaths a year. In fact, in 2016, an estimated 64,000 people lost their lives to opiate overdoses, many of which were unintentional. In some cases, users do not realize the potency of the drug they use, or do not realize that it has been combined with another substance. Some people who manufacture and sell narcotics cut their product with fillers, such as baby powder to increase profits, while others add additional drugs. For example, many batches of heroin sold on the streets also contain fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine and is responsible for a large percentage of opioid overdoses.
Should You Refuse DUI Field Sobriety Testing
In the unfortunate event that you are stopped by the police and accused of driving under the influence, you should be aware of the types of tests that you may be asked to undergo and the consequences of agreeing or refusing to undergo these tests.
The three types of tests are field sobriety tests, portable breath tests, and evidentiary breath tests. This post will focus on the field sobriety tests. Field sobriety tests are conducted at the site of the traffic stop by the police officer who pulls you over. The officer will use the results of these tests to decide (1) whether or not to ask you to take a portable breath test and (2) whether or not arrest you for DUI.
The Most Common Field Sobriety Tests
The most common field sobriety tests are (1) the one-leg stand, (2) the walk and turn, which involves walking in a straight line taking heel to toe steps, and (3) the horizontal gaze. These three tests taken together are referred to as the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests.
Three Myths Regarding Illinois Marijuana Laws
Currently, eight states and Washington D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana. Other states—including Illinois-have made medical marijuana legal if it is prescribed by a medical doctor for specified conditions. In Illinois, however, it is still against the law for anyone else to purchase, use, or carry marijuana. There is a lot of misinformation regarding cannabis and the laws which govern its use. Below are three of the most popular myths regarding marijuana laws.
1. Police Must Identify Themselves
Television and the big screen have perpetuated several myths about police and marijuana. One of these misconceptions is that if a person asks an undercover police officer if he is indeed law enforcement, that the office must admit to his identity. This trope is often used in so-called “stoner movies” in which the main characters use marijuana heavily, but it is simply not true. A police officer has the authority to pretend to be someone else in order to catch and prevent criminal activity. In sting operations or investigations, police may pose as drug dealers or other criminals in order to bring offenders to justice.
Illinois Expands the Sealing and Expungement of Criminal Records
Anyone who has been arrested or convicted of a crime in the past can tell you how having a misdemeanor or felony record can hinder one’s ability to apply for a job, housing, a loan, or even admission into school. However, the outlook for offenders may be looking up with the implementation of new laws dealing with the expungement or sealing of criminal records in Illinois.
New Laws Offer Relief
Two bills passed by the state legislature and signed by Governor Bruce Rauner in 2017 are expected to help ex-offenders find employment and other opportunities while saving the state money. These bills made the following changes to Illinois law:
- An ex-offender can apply to have their criminal record sealed from public view by filing an application in the court where they were convicted. The process requires the applicant to notify the prosecutor and police department involved in their arrest and the prosecution of their case, and, if no objections are brought, the court can grant the request. Future viewing of the record would be limited only to those who obtain a court order that allows them to do so.
New Law Promises to Give Juveniles More Opportunities
The nation’s first juvenile court system was established in Cook County, Illinois, in 1899. The system was intended to address the reality that adolescents are different from adults. Unlike “adult” courts, juvenile courts traditionally focus on educating and rehabilitating young offenders and keeping them from returning to a life of crime. In the nearly 120 years since the founding of the first juvenile court, the stated goals of such systems have remained the same, but many people believe that bureaucracy and red tape have made it nearly impossible many young people to start over again after making a mistake. Thanks to a new law that went into effect at the beginning of this year, however, most juvenile offenders will now qualify for the automatic expungement of their records.
A Historically Large Problem
In the spring of 2016, the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission released the results of an analysis of the state’s juvenile court system. The study looked at juvenile arrests from 2004 to 2014—1.85 million arrests in all. Of those arrests, only 5,310 were ever expunged from the record of the arrestees. This amounts to just three expungements for every 1,000 arrests, a number which includes arrests that did not lead to findings of delinquency or convictions.
