People v. Hayes

*430OPINION OF THE COURT

Rena K. Uviller, J.

When the police arrest a hospital patient, may they seize and search the personal effects he relinquished to the hospital for safekeeping in order to receive emergency treatment? Or does the patient retain an interest in his property sufficient to require the police to obtain a warrant before taking it? The question posed by this case is a recurring and unresolved one as perpetrators as well as victims seek hospital care in the aftermath of the City’s violence. (See, e.g., People v Watt, 118 Misc 2d 930; People v Miller, 19 Ill App 3d 103, 311 NE2d 179;…