Case Name: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Marlon BANKS, Appellant
Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Decision Date: 1995-05-12
Citations: 658 A.2d 752
Docket Number: 
Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Marlon BANKS, Appellant.
Judges: Before NIX, C.J., and FLAHERTY, ZAPPALA, PAPADAKOS, CAPPY, CASTILLE and MONTEMURO, JJ.
Reporter: West's Atlantic Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 658
Pages: 752–755

Head Matter:
COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Marlon BANKS, Appellant.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
Argued Oct. 18, 1994.
Decided May 12, 1995.
John W. Packel, Linda A. Peyton, Philadelphia, for M. Banks.
Catherine Marshall, Ronald Eisenberg, Peter J. Gardner, Philadelphia, for Com.
Before NIX, C.J., and FLAHERTY, ZAPPALA, PAPADAKOS, CAPPY, CASTILLE and MONTEMURO, JJ.

Opinion:
OPINION OF THE COURT
FLAHERTY , Justice.
The facts in this case are that the appellant, Marlon Banks, was convicted in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County of possession of drugs (cocaine) and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. The Superior Court, in a memorandum decision, affirmed. Appellant alleges that evidence seized by the police should have been suppressed as the fruit of an illegal search. We agree, and, thus, reverse.
On January 20, 1992, at 12:50 p.m., a police officer in a marked police car saw appellant standing on a Philadelphia street corner. Appellant reached into his pocket and handed an object to an unknown female who, in turn, gave appellant an undetermined amount of cash. The police officer testified that he could not identify the object which appellant had handed over. As the officer's patrol car drew near, appellant fled, but he was promptly captured. Appellant was searched and cocaine was found in a brown paper bag on his person. The Commonwealth admits that the stop and apprehension of appellant was a full arrest search and not a Terry-type "pat down." See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). The central issue, therefore, is whether the arrest was based on probable cause under the Fourth Amendment.
Probable cause justifying a warrant-less arrest is determined by the "totality of the circumstances." Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). In Commonwealth v. Lawson, 454 Pa. 23, 29, 309 A.2d 391, 394 (1973), we stated: "Every commercial transaction between citizens on a street corner when unidentified property is involved does not give rise to probable cause for an arrest." See also Commonwealth v. Greber, 478 Pa. 63, 385 A.2d 1313 (1978). Well recognized additional factors giving rise to probable cause were not present here. This is not a case where a trained narcotics officer observed either drugs or containers commonly known to hold drugs being exchanged. See Commonwealth v. Burnside, 425 Pa.Super. 425, 625 A.2d 678 (1993). This is not a case where the police observed multiple, complex, suspicious transactions. See Lawson, supra. And this is not a ease in which the police officer was responding to a citizen's complaint or to an informant's tip. See Commonwealth v. Dennis, 417 Pa.Super. 425, 612 A.2d 1014 (1992), appeal denied, 535 Pa. 654, 634 A.2d 218 (1993). This is simply a case where a police officer chanced upon a single, isolated exchange of currency for some unidentified item or items, taking place on a public street corner at midday, and where appellant fled when approached by the officer. We believe that the fact of flight, under the circumstances presented, did not constitute a sufficient additional factor to give rise to probable cause.
Under the Fourth Amendment, we have long held that flight alone does not constitute probable cause for an arrest. Commonwealth v. Jeffries, 454 Pa. 320, 311 A.2d 914 (1973). Of course, as the Superior Court recently held in Commonwealth v. Frank, 407 Pa.Super. 500, 595 A.2d 1258 (1991), flight coupled with additional facts that point to guilt may establish probable cause to arrest. Accord Jeffries, supra. But the additional facts here do not by themselves "point to guilt." We find that mere police observation of an exchange of an unidentified item or items on a public street corner for cash (which alone does not establish probable cause to arrest) cannot be added to, or melded with the fact of flight (which alone does not establish probable cause to arrest) to constitute probable cause to arrest. Such facts, even when considered together, fall narrowly short of establishing probable cause.
This conclusion is consistent with our recent decision in Commonwealth v. DeWitt, 530 Pa. 299, 608 A.2d 1030 (1992), where we found insufficient evidence to justify a mere investigatory stop on more facts than exist in the present case. In DeWitt, the defendant was seen sitting in a car with three other people. The car was parked in a church parking lot at 11:50 p.m. The exterior lights were off, and the interior lights were on. Because he had received notice from the church of previous criminal behavior in the parking lot, a police officer pulled alongside the car to investigate. The interior lights went out and the four occupants made movements as if trying to hide something. The car pulled away as the officer approached. When the officer stopped the car, drugs were recovered. We found no evidence to support the officer's conclusion that criminal activity was afoot. There was no information that the particular car in DeWitt or its occupants were engaged in criminal activity, and nothing in their behavior could lead to that conclusion, let alone probable cause to arrest. Moreover, we observed that we would be hard pressed to conclude that flight, by itself, constitutes reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct. 530 Pa. at 307-08, 608 A.2d at 1034. In short, movement of an unknown item, or the mere exchange of an unknown item or items, plus flight, with nothing more, does not establish probable cause to arrest under the Fourth Amendment. Accordingly, the order of the Superior Court which held to the contrary must be reversed.
Order reversed.
PAPADAKOS, J., did not participate in the decision of this case.
CASTILLE, J., files a dissenting opinion.
MONTEMURO, J., is sitting by designation.
. This case was reassigned to this writer.
. Jeffries held that under the Fourth Amendment flight alone does not constitute probable cause to arrest. Jeffries further held that any contraband disposed of or abandoned in the course of flight improperly precipitated by police pursuit without probable cause must be suppressed as the fruit of illegal police conduct under the Fourth Amendment. In California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991), the U.S. Supreme Court held that contraband disposed of or abandoned in the course of an unjustified pursuit by police is not the fruit of illegal police conduct and is not a "seizure" under the Fourth Amendment requiring suppression of the evidence obtained. Hodari D. is therefore contrary to the second part of our holding in Jeffries. The first part of our holding in Jeffries, however, that flight alone does not give probable cause to arrest clearly remains valid under the Fourth Amendment.