People v. Queen

              No. 2--05--0185 filed: 11/28/06
______________________________________________________________________________
IN THE
APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS
SECOND DISTRICT
______________________________________________________________________________
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE ) Appeal from the Circuit Court
OF ILLINOIS, ) of Lake County.
)
Plaintiff-Appellee, )
)
v. ) No. 03--CM--3192
)
LEONARD QUEEN, ) Honorable
) Helen S. Rozenberg,
Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, Presiding.
______________________________________________________________________________
JUSTICE O'MALLEY delivered the opinion of the court:
Defendant, Leonard Queen, appeals the judgment of the circuit court of Lake County denying
his motion to quash his arrest and suppress a switchblade that was found on his person after the police
seized him. We affirm, holding that the seizure that led to the discovery of the switchblade was
justified as an exercise of the community caretaking authority of police.
Defendant was charged with unlawful use of a weapon (720 ILCS 5/24--1(a)(1) (West 2002))
for possessing the switchblade. In his motion to quash arrest and suppress evidence, defendant
asserted that, at the time he was seized, the police "did not have probable cause, or a reasonable
suspicion based on facts, to believe that [he] had [sic] or was about to commit a crime."
Mark Fragale, a Lake Villa police officer, was the sole witness at the hearing on defendant's
motion to quash and suppress. Fragale testified that on May 8, 2003, at 2 a.m., he entered an
apartment complex in Lake Villa to drop off the victim of a domestic battery. After dropping off the