People v. Sinegal

State: Illinois

Court: 5th District Appellate

Docket No: 5-09-0563 Rel

Case Date: 03/30/2011

Preview:Rule 23 order filed March 30, 2011; Motion to publish granted May 5, 2011.

NO. 5-09-0563 IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIFTH DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CEDRIC J. SINEGAL, Defendant-Appellant.

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Appeal from the Circuit Court of Union County. No. 09-CF-55 Honorable Mark M. Boie, Judge, presiding.

PRESIDING JUSTICE CHAPMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Justices Welch and Donovan concurred in the judgment and opinion. OPINION The defendant, Cedric J. Sinegal, appeals his conviction for unlawful possession of cannabis. He argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion to quash arrest and suppress evidence because officers who pierced the side of a plastic-wrapped package containing the cannabis lacked probable cause to search the package. We affirm. The defendant's conviction stems from a stop of his vehicle at a gas station near Interstate 57 in Union County, Illinois. Trooper Rodger Goines initially stopped the vehicle because the defendant was exceeding the speed limit and his car had tinted windows and did not have a front license plate. After stopping the vehicle, Trooper Goines learned that the defendant's vehicle was registered in Louisiana. Illinois requires vehicles to have two license plates, while Louisiana does not. At the relevant time, Illinois prohibited tinted windows for the windshield and the windows to each side of the driver, while Louisiana does not. (We note that the law has subsequently been amended to relax that prohibition. 625 ILCS 5/12-

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503(a-5) (West Supp. 2009); Pub. Act 96-815,

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