Forgery Case Dismissed After Winning Motion to Suppress

Today, the prosecutor's office dismissed all felony charges against my client. My client was charged with Forgery. He was a passenger in a vehicle that drove through a drive-thru at a Taco Bell. My client was the front seat passenger. The driver passed a counterfeit $20 bill to the Taco Bell employee. The employee noticed that the bill was counterfeit and called the police. The vehicle fled the scene and was pulled over several blocks away. The police removed the driver and my client from the vehicle. They searched my client and found nothing. The driver of the vehicle began making certain incriminating statements while the police searched the vehicle and became upset when the police recovered some of the counterfeit money in the vehicle. The entire time, my client made no statements and did nothing to give the police reason to suspect that he was doing anything wrong. After the police recovered the counterfeit money they placed everyone under arrest, including my client. They took everyone down to the police station and began asking questions. An agent from the Department of Homeland Security arrived at the station and my client made a written statement taking responsibility for the counterfeit money. He even gave the authorities permission to search a hotel room where they recovered a color printer and some counterfeit money.

I filed a Motion to Quash Arrest and Suppress Evidence arguing that the police lacked any probable cause to arrest my client. After I called the arresting officer to the stand and showed the court that my client gave the police no reason to suspect he had anything to do with the counterfeit money, the court granted my motion and ruled that the police were not legally justified in arresting him. Consequently, everything that happened after the arrest, the written statement and the search of the hotel room, were also not admissible.

The prosecutor was left with no evidence in which to prosecute my client so they were forced to dismiss the charges against my client. My client was being held in Cook County Jail on a $75,000 bond. He left court knowing he would be going home to his family that evening, a free man.

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