Com. v. Gaffney, R.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 30, 2015
Docket1521 EDA 2014
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Gaffney, R. (Com. v. Gaffney, R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Com. v. Gaffney, R., (Pa. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

J-S43007-15

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA Appellee

v.

REINALDO GAFFNEY,

Appellant No. 1521 EDA 2014

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence of January 29, 2014 In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Criminal Division at No(s): MC-51-CR-0037974-2012

BEFORE: GANTMAN, P.J., PANELLA AND OLSON, JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY OLSON, J.: FILED SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

Appellant, Reinaldo Gaffney, appeals from the judgment of sentence

entered on January 29, 2014. We affirm.

The trial court ably summarized the underlying facts and procedural

posture of this case. As the trial court explained:

[Appellant] was [charged with] possession of a controlled substance.[1] On November 20, 2013, [Appellant] litigated a motion to suppress evidence before [Philadelphia Municipal Court] Judge James M. DeLeon. That motion was denied. Judge DeLeon recused himself and [Appellant] finally proceeded to trial before [Philadelphia Municipal Court] Judge Karen Simmons on January 29, 2014. [Appellant] was found guilty by the court and sentenced to [12] months [of] probation. . . .

____________________________________________

1 35 P.S. § 780-113(a)(16). J-S43007-15

A [petition for a] writ of certiorari to the court of common pleas was filed on behalf of [Appellant] and litigated before [the trial court] on April 25, 2014. After oral argument on the issues presented, [the trial court] denied the writ and found no error in the municipal court’s decision to deny [Appellant’s] suppression [motion]. . . . In addition, [the trial court] denied [Appellant’s] motion to dismiss based upon [the alleged] insufficiency of the evidence.

At the suppression hearing[] on November 20, 2013, Philadelphia Police Officer Michael Haas testified that he was on duty on September 16, 2012, at approximately 7:39 p.m., when he encountered [Appellant] driving southbound on 59th Street crossing Thompson Street in Philadelphia. [N.T. Suppression Hearing, 11/20/13, at 6].

[As Officer Haas testified, he] observed [Appellant] utilizing a cell phone [to either “text[] or read[]”] while driving. [Specifically, Officer Haas testified:

A: I observed [Appellant] driving southbound on 59th Street, crossing the intersection of Thompson Street, driving with a cell phone in hand, either texting or reading. He continued southbound, and I signaled the vehicle to stop.

Q: Can I ask you a question? It’s 7:39 p.m.; how did you notice the cell phone?

A: I saw the glow of the cell phone lighting up his face, so –

Q: And then how – where was he holding the cell phone – his position?

A: If I were in the driver’s seat, if I was [Appellant], he was holding the cell phone up like this.

Q: So, it’s visible to you in your car?

A: Yeah, he wasn’t holding it down by his waist; he was holding it up here.

Id. at 6-7].

-2- J-S43007-15

Based upon this [apparent] motor vehicle [code] violation, [Officer Haas] signaled the car to stop. The operator of the vehicle, [Appellant], complied.

[Officer Haas testified:

I exited out of the patrol vehicle. I was the driver that night. My partner, Officer Endarzo (ph) was the passenger of the vehicle. He approached on the passenger side, I approached on the driver’s side. As I was approaching, I saw [Appellant] with his hand around the gear shifter of the vehicle.

The gear shifter in this – it was a silver Impala – the gear shifter was in between the two seats. He had his hand down there by that. I told him to show – I believe I told him to show me his hands. I say that to everybody who I stop, just, “Let me see your hands.” I saw his hands down by the compartment. It appeared that he was closing the seal of it.

When he didn’t show me his hands, I was concerned for my safety.[2] Because he didn’t show me his hands, I thought he was possibly concealing something in that compartment. I’ve been to training that has taught me that certain parts of the car are used to conceal weapons and narcotics, like natural voids and natural compartments in the vehicle, such as gear shifter[s], such as light switches that can be pulled out easily and resealed.

So I recognized that. My partner then, I believe, observed red – we thought it was blood on the side of the car. We pulled him out of the car for a safety frisk,

2 Officer Haas testified that Appellant did not comply with the demand to show his hands “for several seconds” and that, during this time, Appellant’s right hand “was still down by the gear shifter.” N.T. Suppression Hearing, 11/20/13, at 14. Further, Officer Haas testified that the vehicle had an automatic transmission. Id.

-3- J-S43007-15

and at that point, we believed there to be possible narcotics or weapons in [the gear shifter].

Id. at 7-8].

Officer Haas [] requested a supervisor to arrive and also requested K-9 support to alert for the possibility of concealed drug activity. [As Officer Haas testified, Appellant was handcuffed while they “waited there for the dog.” Id. at 12. Further, Officer Haas testified that Appellant was driving a rental vehicle. Id. at 14]. . . .

Philadelphia [Police Officer] John Callahan of the Philadelphia K-9 Unit testified that on September 16, [2012], he was called to the area of 5900 West Thompson Street and deployed his canine (a trained narcotic odor detector) to the exterior of [Appellant’s] rental vehicle. [Officer Callahan testified that, d]uring the course of that exterior sniff, . . . “K-9 Blackjack indicated and then subsequently alerted to the odor of controlled substances that he’s been trained to recognize, at the driver’s door seams. I related this information to the officers. I gave them my qualifications, which consist of mine and the dog’s biography, in a brief format, and I resumed patrol.” [Id. at 20.] Officer Callahan further testifie[d]:

While the dog is not specifically trained to find pills, because frankly, that would take forever, it is not uncommon for the dog – any narcotics dog in my experience, the three that I have worked [with], it is not uncommon for these dogs to alert to a derivative of opium. Heroin is a derivative of opium, so are oxycodone, Endocet, and those types of pain pills.

So, while we don’t specifically hide those pills and train the dog to locate them, it is not uncommon, based upon my experience and my training, that the dog would locate them and alert to them.

Id. at 23-24.

Following Officer Callahan’s testimony, the Commonwealth rested its case and the trial court denied Appellant’s motion to suppress.

-4- J-S43007-15

Appellant proceeded to trial and, during the trial, the Commonwealth presented essentially the same evidence as during the pre-trial motion hearing. Further, at trial, the parties stipulated that,] if Detective Slobodian were to testify, he would testify that he recovered from the Chevy Impala on September 16, 2012, below the shifter knob[,] a clear sandwich baggie, knotted, that contained nine white pills marked 10/325 and E712, pills identified as Endocet, a generic form of Percocet, which was placed on property receipt number 3058388. [N.T. Trial, 1/29/14, at 23].

Trial Court Opinion, 1/22/15, at 1-5 (some internal capitalization and

citations omitted).

On February 17, 2014, Appellant filed a timely petition for writ of

certiorari in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. Within the

petition, Appellant claimed:

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Bluebook (online)
Com. v. Gaffney, R., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/com-v-gaffney-r-pasuperct-2015.