IL: Defendant’s stop on a SW for another’s apartment was unreasonable

Defendant was stopped based on a search warrant for the apartment of another. In the search, officers found no drugs, but they found keys. It turned out that a key fit the apartment door. At the time of the search of his person, the officers did not have probable cause to detain him because there was no known connection to the keys and the apartment. Defendant was taken from the place of his seizure to the apartment. People v. Hill, 2012 Ill. App. LEXIS 332, 2012 IL App (1st) 102028 (May 4, 2012):

[**P22] We note that the finding of probable cause to support the search warrant does not permit us to assume that there was probable cause or reasonable suspicion to justify the continued detention and transportation of defendant. These are related, but different, inquiries, and “[e]ach requires a showing of probabilities as to somewhat different facts and circumstances.” 2 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure § 3.1(b), at 8-9 (4th ed. 2004). “In the case of arrest, the conclusion concerns the guilt of the arrestee, whereas in the case of search warrants, the conclusions go to the connection of the items sought with crime and to their present location.” Id. at 10. The same holds true for the State’s Terry argument: the search warrant does not, by its mere existence, give rise to reasonable suspicion that justifies the continued detention and transportation of defendant. While this information supporting the search warrant is now part of the record, the State has never argued—in the motion to supplement the record, in its brief, or at oral argument—that the specific facts in the complaint for the search warrant support an independent finding of probable cause or reasonable suspicion that would justify the seizure. Instead, the State simply argues that because police had a reason to believe there were drugs in the Flournoy apartment (i.e., they had probable cause for the search warrant), they also had probable cause, or at least reasonable suspicion, that allowed for defendant’s continued detention and transportation. Where the search of defendant revealed no narcotics and police had not yet found any narcotics or contraband at the apartment, the mere expectation that police would find drugs in the apartment, without more, cannot justify defendant’s continued detention and transportation to the apartment.