People v. Bass

This case presents question as to whether trial court properly denied defendant’s motion to suppress his arrest and subsequent statement given to police officials, where defendant was arrested on criminal sexual assault charge after car in which he was passenger was stopped for traffic matter, and where police discovered during name check that defendant was subject to active investigative alert. Appellate Court, in reversing trial court, found that use of investigative alert to arrest defendant was unconstitutional under Illinois Constitution because Illinois Constitution generally requires that arrest warrant be issued before arrest is made, and where investigative alert calling for defendant’s arrest after police determination of probable cause was generated by police supervisor, as opposed to court. In its petition for leave to appeal, govt. argued that reversal of Appellate Court holding was warranted, where: (1) Appellate Court decided constitutional issue that was not raised by defendant; (2) Appellate Court did not need to reach constitutional issue, where it had found that instant 8-minute delay from stop to defendant’s arrest was unreasonable; (3) instant name/warrant check was permissible and reasonable under Harris, 228 Ill.2d 222; and (4) Appellate Court should have applied good-faith exception to exclusionary rule, where police possessed probable cause to arrest defendant on sexual assault charge.