Opinion ID: 2381664
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Totality of Circumstances: Forensic Hair Analysis/Probable Cause

Text: The validity of Thompson's arrest depends upon: whether, at the moment the arrest was made, the officers had probable cause to make it  whether at that moment the facts and circumstances within their knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information were sufficient to warrant a prudent man in believing that [Thompson] had committed or was committing an offense. Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91, 85 S.Ct. 223, 225, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964). [13] In this case, the Superior Court found that there was probable cause for Thompson's warrantless felony arrest. In reaching this conclusion, the trial judge found the fact that Thompson was a suspect in an unrelated but similar incident (i.e., the Royal Oaks case) when coupled with the similarity of the hair comparisons was sufficient to give the police probable cause. Specifically, the trial judge stated that when these two factors were viewed together, even given the proposition that analysis of hair sampling is certainly not conclusive, since it is a scientific test, it satisfied the test of permitting the police to draw a conclusion based on information somewhere between suspicion and sufficient evidence to convict, [14] i.e., that probable cause existed for Thompson's arrest. We are in complete agreement with the reasoning and the ruling by the Superior Court. We conclude that Thompson's identification by virtue of the hair analysis alone was insufficient to establish probable cause for a warrantless arrest for the Bowers Street rape. Cf. Thomas v. State, 467 A.2d at 956-57. However, the hair analysis was sufficient to connect Thompson to the Bowers Street case. Parson v. State, 222 A.2d at 331. [15] We find that the FBI analysis of Thompson's hair was the objective missing link that was necessary to transform the police suspicion that Thompson was connected with the Bowers Street incident into the quantum of information that would lead a man of reasonable caution to conclude that there was probable cause to arrest Thompson for that incident. Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 162, 45 S.Ct. 280, 288, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925). Cf. United States v. De Larosa, 450 F.2d 1057, 1067 (3d Cir.1971), cert. denied, 405 U.S. 927, 92 S.Ct. 978, 30 L.Ed.2d 800 (1972). See also In re Grand Jury Proceedings: Cecil Mills, 686 F.2d 135, 140 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1020, 103 S.Ct. 386, 74 L.Ed.2d 517 (1982). [16]