Traffic stop leads to felony charge of meth possession

ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP – After Kane County deputies pulled over an out-of-state SUV for traveling too closely on I-90 just east of Route 47, the passenger was charged with felony possession of methamphetamine, according to Kane County Sheriff’s reports.

But the arrest may be upended if a judge upholds her attorney’s court filing, alleging that her arrest was illegal because the deputies’ search of her car was not legal, court records show.

Cortney D. McPeak, 31, of the 200 block of Carterville Heights Road, Wytheville, Virginia, was also charged with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

Deputies pulled over a silver 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander with Virginia plates on March 17 because it was 1.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds behind the vehicle it was following while the Illinois Secretary of State recommends a 3-second time gap as a safe following distance, the report stated.

Deputies asked the driver, after he was seated in the police car, if he would give consent to allow a police dog to check the car for narcotics. The driver replied that deputies should ask his girlfriend, the passenger, McPeak, as it was her car, the report stated.

McPeak gave permission to search and the police dog gave the signal there were narcotics by jumping up on the passenger door and sniffing inside the window, the report stated. She first told deputies there was marijuana in the trunk, then admitted there was methamphetamine in the car, the report stated.

Deputies found a pink suede bag containing a meth pipe and a clear plastic baggie weighing 1.25 grams that field tested positive for methamphetamine, the report stated.

McPeak told deputies she bought the meth in Virginia “and brought it with her so (she) and … could have a good time on their road-trip,” the report stated.

The driver received a citation for following too closely, the report stated.

McPeak was released on her own recognizance, court records show.

McPeak faces a Class 3 felony, punishable by two to five years in prison and fines up to $25,000 if convicted.

However, McPeak’s attorney, Liam Dixon, filed court papers March 18 asserting that her arrest was illegal because it was made “without the authority of a valid search or arrest warrant.”

And because of her arrest, “the prosecution has acquired knowledge that it intends to employ in the prosecution of this cause,” according to Dixon’s filing.

Dixon’s filing cited case law People v. Brownlee, in which the Illinois Supreme Court determined that “police officers may not detain a vehicle after the initial purpose for a traffic stop is concluded, and that any evidence seized during such a detention is inadmissible, consent to search notwithstanding.”

Dixon’s court filing argued that deputies also did not have “probable cause, valid consent or exigent circumstances to conduct that search.”

Dixon also filed court papers calling for testimony, video of the arrest, physical tests, radio communication between officers, all inventories, unaltered squad and bodycam videos and all evidence to be preserved as there may be “material which is exculpatory of the defendant, or, in the alternative, tends to mitigate to the offenses or may be used for impeachment.”

McPeak is scheduled to appear in court April 8.