In the Interest of:R.L.J. a minor Appeal of R.L.J.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 30, 2015
Docket798 WDA 2014
StatusUnpublished

This text of In the Interest of:R.L.J. a minor Appeal of R.L.J. (In the Interest of:R.L.J. a minor Appeal of R.L.J.) 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
In the Interest of:R.L.J. a minor Appeal of R.L.J., (Pa. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

J-A13043-15

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

IN THE INTEREST OF: R.L.J., A MINOR IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

APPEAL OF: R.L.J.

No. 798 WDA 2014

Appeal from the Order April 15, 2014 In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County Juvenile Division at No(s): No. 1849-09

BEFORE: PANELLA, J., SHOGAN, J., and OTT, J.

MEMORANDUM BY OTT, J.: FILED JUNE 30, 2015

R.L.J. (“R.J.”) appeals from the dispositional order entered following an

adjudication of delinquency for the offenses of possession of a firearm with

an altered manufacturer’s number, carrying a firearm without a license, and

possession of a firearm by a minor.1, 2 On appeal, R.J. raises two issues:

(1) “Did law enforcement fail to present objective evidence of reasonable

suspicion to perform an investigative detention of R.J. when the police failed

to sufficiently prove that R.J. was the person who ran from police in a high

crime area,” and (2) “Was the identification evidence insufficient beyond a

reasonable doubt when police identified R.J. as the suspect because he stood

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1 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 6110.2(a), 6106(a)(1), and 6110.1(a), respectively. 2 On April 15, 2014, R.J. was committed to Mid Atlantic Youth Services. J-A13043-15

in the backyard of fifteen row houses, considering that the police never saw

the suspect’s face, could not describe the suspect in any detail, and lost

sight of the suspect when he or she ran behind the fifteen row houses?”

R.J.’s Brief at 8.3 Based upon the following, we affirm.

Prior to the adjudication hearing, R.J. filed a motion to suppress, which

was denied by the juvenile court. The facts adduced at the suppression

hearing were set forth in the juvenile court’s findings of fact:

1. On the date in question, the police officer in the case was on routine patrol in the area of Mon View Heights.

2. This area is known by the police to be a high-crime area for both drugs and violence. While on patrol in this area, the police officer observed a person wearing dark clothes, with a hoody, cross the roadway in front of his marked vehicle. The individual was wearing a hoody with the hood up.

3. This person turned, viewed the patrol car, and began to hurry away from the area. Thereafter, he turned and looked back at the patrol car and began to run around a building in the area.

4. The officer drove around the building and around the block. He stopped the car, exited, and walked through the building tunnel, which was a passageway described in the record of being able to gain access from the front to the back area of the building, which the police officer described as almost like a yard-type landscape.

5. Upon turning the corner, the officer saw a person who matched the clothing and description of the person he saw running from the patrol car.

3 R.J. timely complied with the order of the juvenile court to file a Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement of errors complained of on appeal.

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6. The Officer, due to the late hour, the darkness, the flight and his inability to see the person’s hands, asked him to raise his hands for the officer’s safety.

7. Upon raising his hands, the Officer saw in plain view a pistol in the waistband of the juvenile.

8. There were no other people seen in the area at this time.

9. Given the high-crime area, the flight of the person that matched the description of the person he saw running earlier, and the inability to see that person’s hands, the officer was within his rights to ask for the minimal intrusion for officer’s safety for the raising of the juvenile’s hands. Thereafter, the weapon was in plain view and properly seized.

Juvenile Court Opinion, 12/19/2014, at 1–2.

R.J. first challenges the court’s suppression ruling. Specifically, R.J.

contends that the officer lacked reasonable suspicion to stop him because “in

the present case, the officer was not justified in his belief that R.J. was the

suspect.” R.J.’s Brief at 20. R.J. asserts the Commonwealth’s evidence only

showed:

R.J. was merely standing in the backyard area of the fifteen row houses. There was no indication that he had just run from police or that police could provide any sufficient identifying information that connected R.J. to the fleeing suspect, other than R.J. stood outside in the general area where the suspect had run and he wore nondescript dark clothes.

R.J.’s Brief, id.

Our standard of review is as follows:

Our standard of review in addressing a challenge to the denial of a suppression motion is

limited to determining whether the suppression court’s factual findings are supported by the record and whether

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the legal conclusions drawn from those facts are correct. Because the Commonwealth prevailed before the suppression court, we may consider only the evidence of the Commonwealth and so much of the evidence for the defense as remains uncontradicted when read in the context of the record as a whole. Where the suppression court’s factual findings are supported by the record, we are bound by these findings and may reverse only if the court’s legal conclusions are erroneous. The suppression court’s legal conclusions are not binding on an appellate court, whose duty it is to determine if the suppression court properly applied the law to the facts. Thus, the conclusions of law of the courts below are subject to our plenary review.

Commonwealth v. Jones, 605 Pa. 188, 988 A.2d 649, 654 (Pa. 2010), cert. denied, 562 U.S. 832, 131 S. Ct. 110, 178 L. Ed. 2d 32 (U.S. 2010) (citations, quotations and ellipses omitted). Moreover, appellate courts are limited to reviewing only the evidence presented at the suppression hearing when examining a ruling on a pre-trial motion to suppress. See In the Interest of L.J., 79 A.3d 1073, 1083-1087 (Pa. 2013).

Commonwealth v. Ranson, 103 A.3d 73, 76 (Pa. Super. 2013), appeal

denied, ___ Pa. ___ (Pa. May 13, 2015). “It is within the suppression court’s

sole province as factfinder to pass on the credibility of witnesses and the

weight to be given their testimony.” Commonwealth v. Clemens, 66 A.3d

373, 378 (Pa. Super. 2013) (quotations and citation omitted).

Our law recognizes three levels of police interaction with civilians.

“The first is a mere encounter, which requires no level of suspicion at all.

The second level is an investigative detention, which must be supported by

reasonable suspicion. Finally, the third level is an arrest or custodial

detention, which must be supported by probable cause.” Commonwealth

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v. Walls, 53 A.3d 889, 892–893 (Pa. Super. 2012) (citation omitted).

Regarding an investigative detention:

In the seminal case of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 88 S. Ct. 1868 (1968), the United States Supreme Court indicated that police may stop and frisk a person where they had a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot. In order to determine whether the police had a reasonable suspicion, the totality of the circumstances – the whole picture – must be considered.

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Related

Terry v. Ohio
392 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Commonwealth v. Jones
988 A.2d 649 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2010)
Commonwealth v. Brown
904 A.2d 925 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2006)
Commonwealth v. Orr
38 A.3d 868 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2011)
Commonwealth v. Ranson
103 A.3d 73 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2014)
In the Interest of D.M.
781 A.2d 1161 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2001)
Commonwealth v. Jefferson
853 A.2d 404 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2004)
Commonwealth v. Walls
53 A.3d 889 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2012)
Commonwealth v. Clemens
66 A.3d 373 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2013)
In the Interest of K.A.T.
69 A.3d 691 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2013)
In the Interest of L.J.
79 A.3d 1073 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2013)

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