Appellate court orders new detention hearing for Troy man charged with fleeing police
In a case examining the dangers created by someone fleeing police, an Illinois appellate court has ruled that a new detention hearing be conducted for a 46-year-old Troy man accused of possessing a stolen vehicle and aggravated fleeing police.
Matthew J. Delaney initially had a detention hearing in January when Madison County Associate Judge Emily Johnson Nielsen ruled he should be released before his trial.
Prosecutors appealed Nielsen’s decision, and the Fifth District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon on Wednesday overturned Nielsen’s order. It stated a new detention hearing should be held for Delaney.
A new hearing has not been scheduled for Delaney, and as of Friday he was being held in the Centralia Correctional Center related to a 2014 charge of aggravated methamphetamine manufacturing in Madison County.
As part of the state’s revamped criminal justice system that ended cash bail on Sept. 18, judges now conduct detention hearings to determine whether someone should remain in jail until their trial on serious charges.
The process of detention hearings fall under the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, or SAFE-T Act.
Charging documents allege Delaney possessed a stolen 2010 Ford van registered in Arizona and that on Jan. 16 he fled from a Madison County Sheriff’s Office deputy who tried to stop the van.
Delaney was accused of driving 87 mph in a 55 mph zone, according to a petition for a detention hearing filed by the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office.
At one point the van hit a spike strip and eventually went into oncoming traffic where another vehicle was struck head-on. The person in this vehicle declined medical treatment.
Prosecutors alleged that Delaney should not be given pretrial release on the charge of aggravated fleeing because he “posed a real and present threat to any person or the community” while fleeing police, according to the appellate court’s opinion.
This type of threat is one of the provisions in which prosecutors can ask a judge to hold someone in jail before their trial.
The Illinois State Appellate Defender’s Office argued that there was “no evidence to support the idea that” Delaney “contemplated his actions would harm anyone and no one was, in fact, harmed,” according to the appellate court opinion.
Three judges on the appellate court, Justices Barry Vaughan, John Barberis and Mark Boie, ruled in favor of the Illinois State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor’s Office, which argued the case on behalf of the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office.
“Our interpretation would not require every felony or charge of aggravated fleeing to be considered a forcible felony,” the appellate court’s opinion states. “Rather, under our interpretation, a forcible felony occurs only when the circumstances of a particular case show that the defendant’s actions actually threatened or inflicted great bodily harm, permanent disability, or disfigurement.”
Representatives of the Illinois State Appellate Defender’s Office and the Illinois State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor’s Office could not be reached for comment Friday.
Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine couldn’t be reached for an interview but he released a statement noting in part, “This Appellate Court Opinion, which clarifies one of the many ambiguities in this new law, is an important win for the safety of police officers, motorists, highway workers and pedestrians across Illinois.”
“As with any new law, the courts have been tasked with interpreting the SAFE-T Act and making rulings on its application,” Haine said. “Prosecutors from across the state have appealed various court decisions regarding the SAFE-T Act’s application, with a goal of making the SAFE-T Act less harmful to law-abiding citizens.”
