MOUNT VERNON -- A state trooper who carried out a roadside strip search of a man was properly convicted of aggravated assault even though he went on trial for the more serious offense of aggravated battery, an appeals court has ruled.
Trooper Corey Alberson argued that he was deprived of due process when St. Clair County Circuit Judge Jan Fiss, found him guilty of the lesser-included charge of assault. He received a one-year sentence of court supervision.
Alberson was not deprived of his right to due process and, additionally, there was sufficient evidence produced at the bench to support the more serious charge, the Fifth District Appellate Court found.
In a decision delivered by Justice Thomas Welch, with Justices Melissa Chapman and Judy Cates concurring, details of the evening in 2013 that led Alberson to facing the charge were recounted.
Alberson, with a colleague, carried out a traffic stop and a strip search of Anthony Campbell at the Ninth and Lake Street in East St. Louis. The search was made following a tip from an informant that stated an individual named "Tony," a heavyset black man driving an older model white vehicle, would be delivering a "re-up" of a large amount of heroin and crack cocaine to be collected from a liquor store.
Campbell testified he was pulled over as he drove away from the named liquor store, where he intended to buy alcohol but continued driving as the store appeared closed.
He was stopped by Alberson and officer Christopher Currier. He was ordered out of the vehicle, patted down and allowed the officers to search his vehicle. Nothing was found. A check was carried out and it was found Campbell had no criminal record.
Following the search, Alberson told Campbell to unbuckle his pants, after which he used his flashlight to see down his front. He then ordered him to pull down his pants, shined his flashlight around and under the exposed buttocks. After 20 minutes in total, Campbell was allowed to leave, and later testified he was left feeling "insulted and degraded" by the the defendant's actions.
Albertson was later charged with aggravated battery after a policemajor came across dashcam tape of the incident.
In his appeal, the trooper argued he was denied due process because he was not given "notice of the charges brought against him where the trial court … found him guilty of the lesser-included offense of aggravated assault."
The appeals court noted that a defendant cannot be convicted of a crime for which he was not charged but can "be convicted of an uncharged offense if it is a lesser-included offense of a crime expressly charged" in the indictment.
"It is reasonable to be in fear of receiving a battery while one's pants are being held down exposing one's buttocks on the side of a public roadway," Welch wrote in his judgment.
"Furthermore, it is reasonable to believe that an officer willing to, without legal justification, expose a man's buttocks on the side of the road and hold his pants down, would further violate both the law and/or police protocol in conducting a search."