Com. v. Pinock, K.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 31, 2017
DocketCom. v. Pinock, K. No. 2851 EDA 2015
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Pinock, K. (Com. v. Pinock, K.) 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. Pinock, K., (Pa. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

J-S93021-16

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA Appellee

v.

KAREEM PINOCK

Appellant No. 2851 EDA 2015

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence dated September 4, 2015 In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-51-0005543-2014

BEFORE: DUBOW, J., SOLANO, J., and PLATT, J.*

MEMORANDUM BY SOLANO, J.: FILED MARCH 31, 2017

Appellant, Kareem Pinock, appeals from the judgment of sentence

imposed after the trial court convicted him of possessing a controlled

substance with the intent to deliver (PWID) and knowingly or intentionally

possessing a controlled substance.1 Appellant challenges the denial of his

suppression motion on the basis of the limitations on the collective

knowledge doctrine that we set forth in Commonwealth v. Yong, 120 A.3d

299 (Pa. Super. 2015), appeal granted, 137 A.3d 573 (Pa. 2016). After

careful review, we affirm.

____________________________________________

* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court. 1 35 P.S. §780-113(a)(30) and (16). J-S93021-16

The lower court2 summarized the facts presented at the June 29, 2015

suppression hearing as follows:

At the suppression hearing, Police Officer Gina Jackson of the Narcotics Field Unit of the Philadelphia Police Department testified that on April 6, 2014, she received information that narcotics were being sold out of 5252 Spruce Street. Based on this information, Officer Jackson and her partner, Officer Kuhn (first name not given) set up a surveillance of the location on April 7, 2014. The entrance to the property is on 53 rd Street and Officer Jackson was able to observe a black male standing on the landing area of the property. A few people walked up to the male, engage[d] him in a brief conversation, enter[ed] the residence for a few minutes, and then le[ft] the area.

Based on what she observed, Officer Jackson believed narcotic sales were taking place out of the residence, so she contacted two other officers from her squad, Officers Oglesby and Waters (first names not given) and told them that she wanted them to contact a confidential informant (CI) to have that CI sent to the property to buy narcotics. Officers Oglesby and Waters informed her that a CI was given pre-recorded buy money and was en route to her location. Officer Jackson observed the CI walk up to the location and after a brief conversation with the black male she had previously observed on the landing, the CI went inside the residence as the others had previously done. The CI exited moments later and returned to Officers Oglesby and Waters with two (2) clear Ziploc packets with red markings containing crack cocaine.

On April 16, 2014, Officer Jackson and Officer Kuhn set up a second surveillance of the residence. On this day, a black female (later identified as Sharon Rucker) was standing on the landing. Officer Jackson contacted Officer Oglesby and Officer Waters and another CI was given pre-recorded buy money and sent to the residence to purchase narcotics. The CI returned to Officers Oglesby and Waters with two (2) pink-tinted Ziploc ____________________________________________

2 The trial court opinion was authored by the Honorable Jeffrey P. Minehart, Jr.; however, the Honorable Vincent N. Melchiorre presided over the suppression hearing, bench trial, and sentencing in this case.

-2- J-S93021-16

packets contain[ing] crack cocaine. After the CI left, Officers Jackson and Kuhn remained at the location for about 20 more minutes. During those 20 minutes, numerous individuals went up the steps of the landing, had a brief conversation with Ms. Rucker, after which either both the unknown person and Ms. Rucker, or just Ms. Rucker alone briefly entered the residence and returned to the landing before the individual left the area.

On April 21, 2014, a third surveillance was set up at the residence. Officers Rhoades and Hardy (first names not given) had control of the CI this day. As on the previous two (2) surveillances, Officer Jackson was in constant contact with Officers Rhoades and Hardy. On this day, the CI had contact with Ms. Rucker and after their transaction, returned to Officers Rhoades and Hardy with two (2) orange tinted Ziploc packets containing crack cocaine. A fourth surveillance the next day netted the same result with the CI returning with two (2) purple tinted Ziploc packets containing crack cocaine.

On April 23, 2014, a final surveillance of the residence was conducted by Officers Jackson and Kuhn. Officer Jackson had a search warrant for the residence with her. On this date, [Appellant] was standing on the landing where Ms. Rucker and the first unidentified black male had been standing on the previous occasions. Officer Jackson contacted Officers Rhoades and Hardy to have the CI go to the location to purchase narcotics. The CI was given $20.00 in pre-recorded buy money. Officer Jackson observed the CI walk up the steps to the landing, have a brief conversation with [Appellant] and hand [Appellant] the money. [Appellant] then entered the residence as the CI stuck his body partially inside the residence. The CI left the residence and returned to Officers Rhoades and Hardy with two (2) orange tinted Ziploc packets containing crack cocaine.

Within 15 minutes of the last transaction involving the CI, police executed the search warrant for the residence. [Appellant] was not inside the residence when the warrant was executed; he was about 10 feet away on the corner of 53rd and Delancy Streets. Officer Jackson told Officer Waters to stop [Appellant] because of the interactions she observed between the CI and [Appellant]. He was stopped and $20.00 in pre- recorded buy money was recovered from him.

Counsel stipulated to the name of the second female (Iris Carter Marsh) found in the residence when the search warrant

-3- J-S93021-16

was executed. One (1) orange tinted Ziploc packet containing crack cocaine and one (1) clear packet containing marijuana was attributed to Ms. Marsh.

After argument, the suppression motion was denied.

Trial Court Opinion, 1/13/16, at 2–5 (citations to notes of testimony

omitted).

Immediately after the denial of the suppression motion, Appellant

proceeded to trial, after which the trial court rendered its verdicts.

Sentencing was deferred to September 4, 2015, when the trial court

sentenced Appellant to 1½ to 3 years’ incarceration, followed by 3 years’

probation for PWID, with no further penalty imposed for knowingly or

intentionally possessing a controlled substance. Appellant did not file a

post-sentence motion.

Meanwhile, two weeks after the trial court denied Appellant’s

suppression motion, this Court decided Yong, in which we examined the

scope of the “collective knowledge doctrine” (sometimes called the “fellow-

officer rule”), which permits a police officer to make an arrest on the basis of

information provided by other members of the police force.3 In Yong, a ____________________________________________

3 After surveying the case law, the Court in Yong described the collective knowledge doctrine as follows:

[T]he collective knowledge doctrine serves an agency function. When a police officer instructs or requests another officer to make an arrest, the arresting officer stands in the shoes of the instructing officer and shares in his or her knowledge. . . . [A]n arresting officer need not possess encyclopedic knowledge of the underlying facts supporting probable cause. Instead, he or she (Footnote Continued Next Page)

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Com. v. Pinock, K., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/com-v-pinock-k-pasuperct-2017.