Commonwealth v. Edwards

874 A.2d 1192, 2005 Pa. Super. 153, 2005 Pa. Super. LEXIS 919
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 26, 2005
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 874 A.2d 1192 (Commonwealth v. Edwards) 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. Edwards, 874 A.2d 1192, 2005 Pa. Super. 153, 2005 Pa. Super. LEXIS 919 (Pa. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinions

BENDER, J.

¶ 1 This is an appeal by the Commonwealth from an order granting Appellee’s motion to suppress evidence. The Commonwealth raises four issues for our consideration:

Whether the suppression court erred in granting [Appellee’s] pretrial suppression motion where it concluded that the police officer’s search warrant lacked probable cause?
Whether the suppression court erred in granting [Appellee’s] pretrial suppression motion where it concluded that the probation officers lacked reasonable suspicion to search Edwards’ home? Whether the suppression court erred in granting [Appellee’s] pretrial suppression motion where it concluded that the probation officers were acting as law enforcement officers?
Whether the suppression court erred in granting [Appellee’s] pretrial suppression motion where it concluded that [Ap-pellee’s] statements were illegally obtained?

Commonwealth’s Brief at 4. We affirm.

¶ 2 The following represents the finding of facts of the suppression court relevant to analysis of the case:

On or about March 27, 2003, an unreliable informant provided Officer [JJustin Anderson with information that the Defendant was not living at his approved parole address, but was rather living at an unapproved address at 357 South 18th Street in Harrisburg. On April 16, 2003, parole officer Andy Cooper received similar unreliable and unverified information that the Defendant was selling drugs again. While conducting probation checks that day, the two officers drove to the 300 block of South 18th Street to attempt to verify the tips they had received. The two officers saw the Defendant standing outside on the front steps of the unapproved residential address at 357 South 18th Street on the front steps. As the officers stopped [1194]*1194their car, they watched the Defendant go into the home and, within seconds, come back outside as they approached the front door. The officers had a brief discussion with the Defendant on the stoop of 357 South 18th Street, and the Defendant explained that the home belonged to someone named “Chris” and that he was just there to unlock the door for a contractor who was there to do work on the house. There was, in fact, a contractor present doing work on the front exterior of the home. The contractor told the officers that the Defendant had unlocked the front door when he arrived that day. As they spoke with the Defendant outside the home, the officers observed a pager lying just inside the front door on the floor. Neither officer ever observed the Defendant with the pager in his possession.
The officers testified that they followed the Defendant inside the home without either requesting or receiving permission from the Defendant to do so. Once inside the home, the officers observed mail lying on a coffee table in plain view bearing the Defendant’s name and the unapproved address at 357 South 18th Street. The officers requested the Defendant’s permission to search the house, but he refused since the home belonged to “Chris.” The Defendant refused to provide Chris’s last name. The officers then searched the Defendant’s person and found a key ring in his pocket that contained a key for 357 South 18th Street. The officers called Officer Galkowski of the Harrisburg Police Department to provide assistance. Officer Anderson contacted Officer Dan McIntyre, a supervisor at the Dauphin County Adult Probation and Parole Office, to seek authorization to conduct a property search at the residence. Officer McIntyre authorized the search without a warrant and without consent. The two parole officers searched the house while Officer Galkowski remained in the living room with the Defendant. The parole officers found several individually wrapped pieces of crack cocaine and a bag of marijuana in a dresser in a second floor bedroom. The top dresser drawer also contained several headbands with the Defendant’s alias embroidered on them, a scale, and a tray of small vials. Officer Galkowski arrested the Defendant and read him his Miranda rights, and the Defendant agreed to talk to the officer without the presence of his attorney. While under arrest at the residence, the Defendant told Officer Galkowski that he occasionally lived at 357 South 18th Street.
Based upon the evidence obtained as a result of the parole officers’ search, Investigator John Evans of the Harrisburg Police Department applied for and obtained a search warrant for 357 South 18th Street. Investigator Evans searched the premises and seized the following: the mail bearing an unapproved address, an electronic scale, empty glass vials, the embroidered headbands, pictures showing the Defendant wearing the headbands, a marijuana roach, a small bag of marijuana, $90 U.S. currency, and a glass jar found in the freezer containing POP.

Trial Court Opinion, 4/20/04, at 2-4.1

¶3 Subsequent to his arrest, Appellee filed an omnibus pretrial motion seeking [1195]*1195suppression of the evidence seized pursuant to the search of the residence at 357 South 18th Street. A hearing was held on Appellee’s suppression motion on February 10, 2004. On April 20, 2004, the court granted Appellee’s motion and ordered the suppression of any items discovered by Dauphin County Adult Probation and Parole Officers inside the residence at 357 South 18th Street, any items discovered by Harrisburg Police Department officers during the execution of the search warrant and any statements made by Appellee at the time of or after his arrest on April 16, 2003. On May 11, 2004, the Commonwealth filed a notice of appeal from the court’s order certifying that the suppression order would terminate or substantially handicap the prosecution of the within case. On May 17, 2004, the court issued an order directing the Commonwealth to file a statement of matters complained of on appeal pursuant to Pa.R.A.P.1925(b). The Commonwealth filed its statement of matters complained of on appeal on May 28, 2004, which brings us to the present juncture.

¶ 4 We believe Appellant’s issues are set forth “out of order.” That is, Appellant first contends that the court erred in concluding that the search warrant was not supported by probable cause. Secondly, Appellant tackles the suppression court’s conclusion that the parole officers lacked reasonable suspicion to search the residence at 357 S. 18th Street. In our opinion, these issues are out of their logical order because the encounter starts with the confrontation with Appellee outside of the residence at 357 S. 18th Street and proceeds from there, first with an entrance into the residence then with a search and then with the request for a search warrant. Logically and legally speaking, if the entrance into the residence was illegal, then everything that occurred afterward is tainted with illegality.

¶ 5 Although we ultimately conclude that the entrance into the residence at 357 S. 18th Street was illegal, we will address a matter touched upon by the Commonwealth in the first issue, as resolution of this issue is essential to the disposition in Appellee’s favor. The Commonwealth contends in the argument portion of its first issue that the evidence should not have been suppressed “because [Appellee] did not prove that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the 357 S. 18th Street residence.” Commonwealth’s Brief at 11.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
874 A.2d 1192, 2005 Pa. Super. 153, 2005 Pa. Super. LEXIS 919, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-edwards-pasuperct-2005.