Opinion ID: 2351964
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Carroll v. Commonwealth, J-198C

Text: On November 22, 1989, two uniformed Philadelphia police officers in a marked police vehicle saw two men standing on the sidewalk of Olive Street. Both officers exited their patrol car and one of the officers spoke to one of the two men. The second man, Appellant Carroll, stood with his hands in his jacket pockets. The other officer, with his hand over his gun, approached Carroll and started to ask him to take his hands out of his pockets. Carroll turned and fled into an alley, where he promptly slipped and fell on some debris. As he fell, he was being followed by one of the officers, who saw two broken tinted heat sealed packets containing a white substance fall from Carroll's pocket onto the debris in the alley. The pursuing officer approached Carroll, who was still face down in the debris, drew his gun, and told Carroll to stay on the ground with his hands behind his back. Carroll was then arrested. The officer searched Carroll's coat pockets and found 45 additional brown tinted packets. At his trial for possession of drugs and possession of drugs with intent to deliver, the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia suppressed the evidence of the drugs, but the Superior Court reversed.