IL: Lost page of affidavit for SW can be proved without resort to formality of Court Records Restoration Act

When page two of the original complaint for search warrant disappeared, the state was not required to comply with the Court Records Restoration Act to prove up the search warrant at the suppression hearing. A normally authenticated copy would do. The Act applies to lost originals in the clerk’s office, not proving a document in court. People v. Pitts, 2016 IL App (1st) 132205, 2016 Ill. App. LEXIS 170 (March 24, 2016). See Treatise § 60.14 & n.3.

A series of administrative search cases starting with Camara and See from 1967 all put defendants on notice that their actions in seizing persons in non-criminal contexts were subject to the Fourth Amendment for qualified immunity purposes. “Thus, on the facts alleged, construed in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs, the Court concludes that Defendants had no justification, valid or otherwise, for seizing Plaintiffs. The lack of justification, on the facts alleged, is fatal. The obvious result of balancing Plaintiffs’ weighty interests against Defendants’ absent interests is that Defendants’ seizures of Plaintiffs were unreasonable and violated the Fourth Amendment.” J.L. v. N.M. Dep’t of Health, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177181 (D.N.M. Sept. 29, 2015).*