Commonwealth v. Cook

865 A.2d 869, 2004 Pa. Super. 449, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4368
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 29, 2004
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 865 A.2d 869 (Commonwealth v. Cook) 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
Commonwealth v. Cook, 865 A.2d 869, 2004 Pa. Super. 449, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4368 (Pa. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION BY BENDER, J.:

¶ 1 Jon M. Cook (Appellant) appeals from the judgment of sentence entered following convictions for driving under the influence and related summary offenses. Appellant raises several allegations of error, all of which we find to be without merit. Accordingly, for the following reasons, we affirm.

¶ 2 The trial court made the following findings of fact after the suppression hearing:

At approximately 11:15 to 11:20 p.m. on July 20, 2001, Trooper Daniel A. Woods, off duty, followed a red Cavalier through Mount Jewett and partially down Hazel Hurst hill, and observed that the vehicle traveled into the parking lane, nearly striking the curb, and was otherwise erratically driving, and reported this information to the State Police dispatcher.
He further observed that the defendant crossed the fog line two to three times, one-half to one-third of the car width, during the time which he followed the vehicle which was close to a mile. He did not report this information directly to Trooper Kraynick. Subsequently, Trooper Kraynick received information from the Police Communications Officer stating that Trooper Woods had encountered an erratic driver.
Subsequently, Trooper Kraynick came upon a red Chevy Cavalier east of Hazel Hurst on Route 6, followed the vehicle for approximately one mile and saw the defendant drive over the right fog line to the extent of half the vehicle width, three times, and then rapidly jerk back into his lane of travel.
Based on observations, Trooper Kraynick stopped the defendant and subsequently arrested him for driving under the influence of alcohol.
The Police Communications Officer also told Trooper Kraynick that the car was a red Cavalier and the first three letters of the license plate.

Trial Court Opinion (T.C.O.), 1/18/02, at 1-

2.Appellant was convicted following a bench trial, after which he filed this appeal raising four questions for our review:
1. Should the McKean County Court of Common Pleas (hereinafter “Trial Court”) have granted Defendant’s Omnibus Pretrial Motion to Suppress Evidence, including issues concerning the admission of testimony of Trooper Woods?
2 Should the Trial Court have granted Defendants [sic] Motion to Dismiss Pursuant to Rule 600?
3. Should the Trial Court enforced [sic] the subpoena served on Jerry Jenkins of the Bradford Regional Medical Center by adjourning the trial so that Mr. Jenkins could obtain the material requested by the subpoena; and by failing to do so did the Trial Court deny Defendant the opportunity to effectively cross-examine Mr. Jenkins concerning the blood-alcohol test results in this case in violation of his state and federal constitutional rights to compulsory process and confrontation?
4. Was the Verdict of Guilty on Count 3 improper as the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict, and was insufficient due its [sic] inconsistency with the verdict of Not Guilty on Count 4? *

Brief for Appellant at 7.

¶ 3 In the first question presented for our review, Appellant claims that *873 the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress. Our standard for reviewing a trial court’s order denying a motion to suppress is as follows:

In an appeal from the denial of a motion to suppress, our role is to determine whether the record supports the suppression court’s factual findings and the legitimacy of the inferences and legal conclusions drawn from those findings. In making this determination, we may consider only the evidence of the prosecution’s witnesses and so much of the defense as, fairly read in the context of the record as a whole, remains uncontra-dicted. When the evidence supports the factual findings of the suppression court, we may reverse only if there is an error in the legal conclusions drawn from those factual findings. As a reviewing court, we are therefore not bound by the legal conclusions of the suppression court and must reverse that court’s determination if the conclusions are in error or the law is misapplied.

Commonwealth v. Ayala, 791 A.2d 1202, 1207 (Pa.Super.2002) (citing Commonwealth v. Turner, 772 A.2d 970, 972-73 (Pa.Super.2001) (en banc)).

¶ 4 Appellant claims that Trooper Kray-nik did not possess a reasonable and artic-ulable suspicion of a violation of the vehicle code when he stopped Appellant. The authority of a police officer to stop a vehicle for a suspected violation of the vehicle code is governed by 75 Pa.C.S. § 6808. This statute was amended in 2003, and the amendments became effective on February 1, 2004. Therefore, the prior version of the law applies to this case, and it states:

(b) Authority of police officer.— Whenever a police officer is engaged in a systematic program of checking vehicles or drivers or has articulable and reasonable grounds to suspect a violation of this title, he may stop a vehicle.

75 Pa.C.S. § 6308(b) (amended 2003). 1 The courts of this Commonwealth have expounded at length on what the above standard means.

¶ 5 In Commonwealth v. Whitmyer, 542 Pa. 545, 668 A.2d 1113 (1995), the Court stated that the police must possess probable cause in order to stop a vehicle for a suspected violation of the vehicle code:

If the alleged basis of a vehicular stop is to permit a determination whether there has been compliance with the Motor Vehicle Code of this Commonwealth, it is encumbent [sic] upon the officer to articulate specific facts possessed by him, at the time of the questioned stop, which would provide probable cause to believe that the vehicle or the driver was in violation of some provision of the Code.

Id. at 1116 (alteration in original) (quoting Commonwealth v. Swanger, 453 Pa. 107, 307 A.2d 875, 879 (1973)). In Whitmyer, the Commonwealth argued that “reasonable and articulable grounds” was a less stringent legal standard than probable cause. The Court rejected this argument and reasoned as follows:

The crux of the Commonwealth’s argument centers on the semantic difference between the standard articulated in [Commonwealth v. Murray, 460 Pa. 53, 331 A.2d 414 (1975),] — probable cause to believe that there has been a violation of the Vehicle Code, and the language of *874 the statute — articulable and reasonable grounds to suspect a violation of the Vehicle Code.

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865 A.2d 869, 2004 Pa. Super. 449, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4368, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-cook-pasuperct-2004.