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A second judge has found fault with a Will County sheriff’s deputy search of a vehicle that led to the 2022 arrest of a Joliet man on a felony gun possession charge.
On Thursday, Will County Judge Jessica Colón-Sayre granted a defense motion to suppress evidence gathered against Rasean Stokes, 23.
Colón-Sayre determined that there was no probable cause for Deputy Matthew Silverstein’s search of Stokes’ vehicle in 2022.
A gun was recovered in the traffic stop, which led to a charge of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon against Stokes, according to the Will County Sheriff’s Office.
Stokes' case is set for a pretrial hearing March 31.
Last week, Will County Judge Amy Christiansen found that Silverstein’s search of a vehicle occupied by Deamontae Hunter, 27, of Lockport Township was unconstitutional.
Christiansen granted a motion to quash Hunter’s arrest and suppress evidence in that case.
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In Stokes’ case, Colón-Sayre said there was no marijuana found in the vehicle during the traffic stop, even though Silverstein reported smelling a “whiff” of the substance.
The motion to suppress evidence in Stokes’ case was filed last year by Stokes’ attorney, Anna Bertani, with the Tomczak Law Group in Joliet.
The motion referenced another deputy other than Silverstein who conducted the traffic stop. But that deputy only wrote the report, according to the law firm.
Silverstein was the deputy who questioned Stokes, searched him and searched his vehicle based on the smell of burnt marijuana, according to the law firm.
The motion argued that Stokes’ conduct before the traffic stop did not constitute probable cause of a crime, and there were no “corroborating factors” for the detection of the marijuana odor.
The Tomczak Law Group represented Stokes in a 2020 case in which he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge against him.
In 2021, attorney Jeff Tomczak said Stokes was “definitely overcharged” in that case.