Judge upholds La Salle search that found more than 2 pounds of cocaine in trunk

Destine Phillips was stopped for speeding, passed a screening for drunken driving and was about to be let go until a patrol officer finished searching her car and found 2½ pounds of suspected cocaine.

Phillips argued at a Wednesday hearing in La Salle County Circuit Court that Master Sgt. Michael Kasprak conducted an illegal search and asked Chief Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. to throw out the seizure.

The judge didn’t buy it.

It was a good stop, and we agree it’s good police work.”

—  Jason Goode, first assistant La Salle County state's attorney

Phillips, 25, of South Holland, who also has a Chicago address listed in court records, remains charged with a Class X felony and could face up to 60 years in prison. New trial dates are pending. Phillips will be back in court Oct. 3 for a status hearing.

On the stand Wednesday, Phillips acknowledged drinking a few glasses of champagne after work March 29 before setting off for a relative’s home in Iowa. En route, Kasprak clocked Phillips’ car at 98 mph and saw her change lanes without signaling. He pulled her over on Interstate 80 near the I-39 interchange in La Salle.

During the traffic stop, Kasprak testified, Phillips opened her purse to get her license. Inside, Kasprak could see “in plain view” a near-empty bottle of tequila. Kasprak also smelled alcohol inside the passenger compartment and ordered Phillips out of the car so he could investigate whether she was impaired.

Phillips blew a 0.05 blood-alcohol concentration, which is below the threshold for driving under the influence, and Kasprak dumped out both the tequila and an unfinished bottle of champagne he found behind the driver’s seat. After that, Kasprak resumed searching the car – ostensibly for more alcohol.

“Is it fair to say you [didn’t] want to put a driver back on the road with open alcohol?” prosecutor Jason Goode asked.

“That is correct,” Kasprak said.

There, defense attorney Hallie Bezner pounced: Kasprak was about to put her back on the road?

“Yes,” Kasprak said. “If I didn’t find anything else in the vehicle, yes.”

Kasprak did find something else: 1,180 grams, or 2.6 pounds, of alleged cocaine inside the trunk.

Bezner argued that that was an overreach. Kasprak had concluded that Phillips wasn’t impaired and had dumped out the open containers. So why keep searching the car?

“At this point, the traffic stop is over,” Bezner said. “There is no probable cause to do anything else because there’s no reason to believe any other crime is being committed.

“He’s searching the rest of the vehicle for fun. It’s great police work, but it’s not a legal search.”

Goode countered that Kasprak had the right to search the vehicle as soon as he spotted the open bottle of tequila in Phillips’ purse.

“From the moment he sees the alcohol, he’s in,” Goode said. “It was a good stop, and we agree it’s good police work.”

The judge agreed, too. Ryan ruled that Kasprak had secured the right to search the vehicle and retained that authority even after Phillips had passed the breath test. Ryan said courts have ruled that a vehicle search extends to the trunk.

Phillips is out of custody. Although La Salle County prosecutors at one point wanted her jailed, not only for the purported drugs but because of her record – Phillips, at age 14, shot two women, killing one – Ryan decided her juvenile record counted less heavily in deciding whether to grant pretrial release.