An Ogle County judge agreed Wednesday, Dec. 24, that a Rochelle teenager charged with shooting at a vehicle in October should give prosecutors his passcode to access his cell phone.

Associate Circuit Judge Anthony Peska entered an order to “compel” Camren Hastings, 18, to provide access to his iPhone despite arguments from Hastings’s attorney that he did not remember the passcode.

“My client does not remember the passcode,” Assistant Ogle County Public Defender Eric Morrow told Peska.

“The defendant should be held in contempt of court if he refuses,” countered Assistant State’s Attorney Matthew Leisten. “We don’t believe he is being truthful. Our position is he should be held in contempt of court until he provides it.”

Leisten said Hastings had complied with a search warrant for another phone recovered by police.

Morrow said he did not believe the court could compel Hastings to provide the code if he can’t remember it.

Hastings is charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm, a Class 1 felony, and aggravated use of a firearm as a person under the age of 21, a Class 4 felony.

Both charges were filed in connection with an Oct. 4 incident in which Hastings is accused of firing a gun in the direction of a vehicle that was occupied by another person.

Hastings has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and has been held in the Ogle County Jail since his arrest in late October.

Leisten filed a motion Dec. 2 asking the court to compel Hastings to provide access to the iPhone, telling Peska that the phone was recovered from a shelf where Hastings was sleeping when police searched his home in the 400 block of Lake Lida Lane on Oct. 28.

Police said the October search warrant stemmed from an Oct. 4 evening incident in which “a vehicle had been shot approximately 13 times in the 100 block of Willis Avenue.”

At an Oct. 29 detention hearing, Leisten said Hastings was one of a group of 10 individuals walking on the street shooting guns about 11:10 p.m. Another juvenile has been charged in connection with the incident, but juvenile charges and hearings are not open to the public.

Leisten said a passcode is needed to gain access to the iPhone, which had been recovered during a previous residential search. A Nov. 25 search warrant authorized law enforcement officers to press the fingers of Hastings to any ‘Touch ID sensor’ of any Apple brand device for the purpose of unlocking it.

Leisten said he was not sure the iPhone could be accessed through biometrics.

Morrow did not object to Leisten’s motion to compel Hastings to provide the passcode, but requested Peska grant a continuance for another hearing for him to argue the defense’s position.

Peska agreed and remanded Hastings to the Ogle County Jail, setting the next court date for 1 p.m. Jan. 28.

Leisten said if witnesses are being summoned to that hearing their names will likely be redacted because they are juveniles.

“The defendant knows who they are,” added Listen.

During an Oct. 29 hearing, Leisten said video footage obtained by officers showed four males and two females – some appearing to be juveniles – running into a nearby cornfield. He said it appeared that between 13 to 14 shots were fired at the vehicle during the incident and that police collected 12 bullet casings and two firearms near the scene.