Commonwealth v. Lindblom

854 A.2d 604, 2004 Pa. Super. 270, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2216
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 13, 2004
StatusPublished
Cited by72 cases

This text of 854 A.2d 604 (Commonwealth v. Lindblom) 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. Lindblom, 854 A.2d 604, 2004 Pa. Super. 270, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2216 (Pa. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION BY

HUDOCK, J.:

¶ 1 In this appeal, the Commonwealth asserts that the trial court erred in granting Appellee’s suppression motion.1 Appellee filed the motion after he was charged with two counts of driving under the influence and one count of careless driving.2 We reverse and remand for trial.

¶ 2 The standard of review employed by an appellate court when reviewing the grant of a suppression motion has been summarized by our Supreme Court:

We begin by noting that where a motion to suppress has been filed, the burden is on the Commonwealth to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the challenged evidence is admissible. Pa.R.Crim.P. 323(h). See Commonwealth v. Iannaccio, 505 Pa. 414, 480 A.2d 966 (1984), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 830, 106 S.Ct. 96, 88 L.Ed.2d 78 (1985). In reviewing the ruling of a suppression court, our task is to deter[606]*606mine whether the factual findings are supported by the record. Commonwealth v. Monarch, 510 Pa. 138, 147, 507 A.2d 74, 78 (1986). If so, we are bound by those findings. Commonwealth v. James, 506 Pa. 526, 533, 486 A.2d 376, 379 (1985). Where, as here, it is the Commonwealth who is appealing the decision of the suppression court, we must consider only the evidence of the defendant’s witnesses and so much of the evidence for the prosecution as read in the context of the record as a whole remains uncontradicted. Commonwealth v. James, 506 Pa. at 532-33, 486 A.2d at 379; Commonwealth v. Hamlin, 503 Pa. 210, 216, 469 A.2d 137, 139 (1983).

Commonwealth v. DeWitt, 530 Pa. 299, 301-02, 608 A.2d 1030, 1031 (1992) (footnote omitted). Moreover, if the evidence when so viewed supports the factual findings of the suppression court, this Court will reverse only if there is an error in the legal conclusions drawn from those findings. Commonwealth v. Reddix, 355 Pa.Super. 514, 513 A.2d 1041, 1042 (1986).

¶ 3 With regard to the suppression motion, the Commonwealth presented the testimony of two police officers and a citizen witness. The trial court summarized its factual findings from this testimony, which the parties do not dispute, as follows:

On October 21, 2001, at approximately 10:40 p.m., a private citizen named Greg Bergman was driving behind [Appel-lee’s] vehicle and saw it weave back and forth across the yellow and white line[s]. [Appellee’s] vehicle crossed Vk feet over the double yellow line four or five times, straddled the double yellow line, and crossed the berm by one set of tires four or five times. Mr. Bergman called 911, reported his observations and continued to follow [Appellee] until Officer Eckels of the Ross Township police appeared. Mr. Bergman stayed about 20 to 30 feet behind [Appellee’s] vehicle, following the vehicle in a westerly direction from Bab-cock Boulevard through Laurel Gardens and onto Perry Highway. He followed [Appellee’s] vehicle into a residential neighborhood, then waited for the police to arrive when [Appellee] drove down a dead-end street.
When Officer Eckels arrived, Mr. Bergman told the officer that [Appellee] drove down the dead-end street and had not come back out. Mr. Bergman identified [Appellee’s] vehicle and described the erratic driving. Officer Eckels located [Appellee’s] vehicle as it drove past him on the dead-end street and initiated the traffic stop. The traffic stop occurred a few minutes after the initial dispatch call. Officer Eckels had not personally observed any vehicle code violations or erratic driving behavior. [Appellee] appeared intoxicated and was arrested after he failed field sobriety tests.

Trial Court Opinion, 7/17/03, at 1-2 (citations omitted). The record supports the suppression court’s factual findings. Next, we must determine whether the court’s legal conclusions from these findings are correct. Given the above findings, the suppression court concluded that:

This Court granted [Appellee’s] suppression motion due to [Commonwealth v. Gleason, 567 Pa. 111, 785 A.2d 983 (2001)], and its prodigy [sic]. Officer Eckels was permitted to stop [Appel-lee’s] vehicle based on the information he received from Mr. Bergman. An officer does not have to personally observe the illegal or suspicious conduct which forms the basis for the vehicle stop, but can rely on specific information provided by a highly reliable informant. Mr. Bergman was a highly reliable informant because he was a volunteer fire[607]*607fighter who identified himself and personally met with Officer Eckels. Commonwealth v. Korenkiewicz, [743 A.2d 958 (Pa.Super.1999) (en banc)].

Id. at 3 n. 1.3 The court further expanded upon its legal reasoning as follows:

A police officer has authority to stop a vehicle if the officer has articulable and reasonable grounds to suspect a vehicle code violation. The above appellate cases [(Commonwealth v. Gleason, 567 Pa. 111, 785 A.2d 983 (2001) and its progeny),] demonstrate that a motorist cannot be stopped for crossing the center line or the fog line multiple times unless there is evidence that the driving created a safety hazard. [Appellee’s] erratic driving in the instant case was no more egregious [than] the driving in the above appellate cases. There were no other cars on the road in the residential area. Although there were several other vehicles on the road when [Appellee] crossed Perry Highway onto Perry Lane, there was no evidence that [Ap-pellee’s] driving endangered public safety-
The Commonwealth relies on Commonwealth v. Slonaker, [795 A.2d 397 (Pa.Super.2002)], as support that the traffic stop was justified. In Slonaker, the Superior Court affirmed a DUI conviction where the vehicle repeatedly crossed the center line and fog line, accelerated and decelerated, and was stopped for erratic driving despite no evidence of a safety hazard. However, the decisions of the Supreme Court that expanded Gleason compelled this Court to conclude that Officer Eckels did not have articulable and reasonable grounds to stop [Appellee’s] vehicle.

Trial Court Opinion, 7/17/03, at 4-5.

¶ 4 Section 6308(b) of the Vehicle Code allows police officers to stop a vehicle if they have “articulable and reasonable grounds to suspect a violation” of the Vehicle Code. 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 6308(b).4 As this Court has recently summarized:

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Bluebook (online)
854 A.2d 604, 2004 Pa. Super. 270, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2216, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-lindblom-pasuperct-2004.