Opinion ID: 2073303
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Reliability of Information

Text: In State v. LeBlanc, supra, at page 594, this Court said that an anonymous phone call was not by itself adequate to supply probable cause for arrest. Indeed, the information obtained by the police, for it to be adequate to support a warrantless arrest, must furnish underlying facts sufficiently detailed to cause a reasonable person to believe that a crime has been committed and the named or described person was the perpetrator and, secondly, it must disclose such factual data so connected with the person furnishing the information as would generate in a reasonable person a genuine belief that the informer is reliable. The courts have recognized a distinction between informers who are virtual agents of the police and `citizen informants' who are chance witnesses to or victims of crime. The former are often criminally disposed or implicated, and supply their `tips' to the authorities on a recurring basis, in secret, and for pecuniary or other personal gain. The latter are innocent of criminal involvement, and volunteer their information fortuitously, openly, and through motives of good citizenship.. . . Because of these characteristics, the requisite showing of reliability in the case of a citizen informant is significantly less than that demanded of a police informer. . . . (citations omitted) People v. Ramey, 16 Cal.3d 263, 127 Cal.Rptr. 629, 545 P.2d 1333 (1976). Where a citizen informant, as distinguished from the so-called police informer, reports a crime committed in his presence with which criminal activity he was not involved or of which he was the victim, courts have not hesitated to find it reasonable for police officers to act upon such reports on the ground that the reported statement in itself carries inherent reliability. For cases where the informant was a witness, see Commonwealth v. Hawkins, 240 Pa.Super. 56, 362 A.2d 374 (1976); Lewis v. United States, 135 U.S.App.D.C. 187, 417 F.2d 755 (1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 1058, 90 S.Ct. 1404, 25 L.Ed.2d 676; People v. Hester, 39 Ill.2d 489, 237 N.E.2d 466 (1968); People v. Lewis, 240 Cal.App.2d 546, 49 Cal.Rptr. 579, 582 (1966). For cases involving a victim of crime, see Carey v. United States, 377 A.2d 40 (D.C.App.1977); United States v. Easter, 552 F.2d 230 (8th Cir. 1977); Commonwealth v. Ayers, 239 Pa.Super. 263, 361 A.2d 405 (1976). The reliability of the report may be enhanced by a police interview with the victim and by the other corroborating information, as it appears in this case. See United States v. Easter, supra; Lewis v. United States, supra; People v. Chandler, 262 Cal.App.2d 350, 68 Cal.Rptr. 645 (1968), cert. denied 393 U.S. 1043, 89 S.Ct. 670, 21 L.Ed.2d 591; Williams v. Peyton, 208 Va. 696, 160 S.E.2d 581 (1968). In the instant case, it would appear that Mrs. Breau's initial report to the police disclosed her address, but not her name. The Justice below, whether at the pretrial suppression hearing or at trial, must have viewed the report as coming from an identified source, since the police within minutes were at the home of Mrs. Breau in the course of the ongoing investigation which was undertaken immediately. Even if it be assumed that the initial information obtained by the police was secured through an anonymous phone call, such would not in this case nullify the existence of probable cause at the time of the defendant's arrest. Indeed, the information relayed to the police by Mrs. Breau over the phone, confirmed directly by her in person within a few minutes after her initial report, was that of the victim of a crime which had been committed immediately prior thereto. As a matter of fact the interviewing officer noticed that she was still upset when he talked with her to obtain greater details of the incident. Her accurate description of the would-be intruders and of the automobile in which they had left the scene, her furnishing the license number of the fleeing vehicle, the stopping of the Ward car which carried that license plate within a short time of the commission of the crime in the immediate vicinity of the place where it was committed, all this information which the police as a collective unit had in their possession at the time of arrest infused the initial telephonic report with such credibility respecting the occurrence and such reliability in regards to the informant as to warrant a prudent and cautious person to believe that the arrestee did commit the offense for which he was arrested. Even though the record would indicate that, at the pretrial suppression hearing, the initial call to the police did not carry the details of the crime and the description of the individuals involved, at trial Mrs. Breau testified without contradiction that she had furnished the same to the police in that first communication. In determining whether probable cause existed at the time of arrest, this Court, in its appellate review, is not restricted to the evidence at the suppression hearing, where the trial Justice, as in this case, undertook at trial to adjudge anew the validity of the arrest, but we will take into consideration the whole record, including the evidence at trial. See Commonwealth v. Howard, 350 N.E.2d 721 (Mass.App.1976); People v. Olajos, 397 Mich. 629, 246 N.W.2d 828 (1976). The general rule is that, if the evidence at the trial establishes the legality of the arrest from which evidentiary matters subsequently developed and arising therefrom depend for admissibility in evidence, a defendant cannot avail himself of any error on the motion to suppress. Rent v. United States, 209 F.2d 893 (5th Cir. 1954); Commonwealth v. Young, 349 Mass. 175, 206 N.E.2d 694 (1965); People v. Braden, 34 Ill.2d 516, 216 N.E.2d 808 (1966); Rocha v. United States, 387 F.2d 1019 (9th Cir. 1967); United States v. Bolin, 514 F.2d 554 (7th Cir. 1975); United States v. Smith, 527 F.2d 692 (10th Cir. 1975); State v. Shivers, 346 So.2d 657 (La.1977). See also State v. Smith, Me., 381 A.2d 687 (1978); Contra People v. Orozco, 74 Mich.App. 428, 253 N.W.2d 786 (1977). We are not dealing with the situation where the defendant prevailed at the suppression hearing. Whether the State should be given two bites at the apple, we need not decide and intimate no opinion thereon. See People v. Bryant, 37 N.Y.2d 208, 371 N.Y.S.2d 881, 333 N.E.2d 161 (1975). We cannot say the ruling below that there existed probable cause to arrest the defendant without a warrant was clearly erroneous. The facts of the instant case bring it within the factual pattern presented by State v. Babcock, Me., 361 A.2d 911, 914, n. 3 (1976). Here, the police, in addition, had been given the license number of the offending vehicle. See also State v. Little, Me., 343 A.2d 180 (1975); State v. Heald, Me., 314 A.2d 820 (1973). The defendant's contentions that reversible error resulted from the admission in evidence of Mrs. Breau's out-of-court and in-court identifications, of the strips of plastic and the stereo tapes, were all bottomed on the illegality of the defendant's arrest without a warrant. He did not argue their inadmissibility on other independent grounds. In that posture of the case, we could decline to review the admissibility of such evidence. See State v. Barlow, Me., 320 A.2d 895, 898 (1974); State v. Campbell, Me., 314 A.2d 398, 401 (1974); State v. Devoe, Me., 301 A.2d 541, 543 (1973). In view of our right to notice obvious errors affecting the substantial rights of the accused (Rule 52(b), M.R.Crim.P.) and the importance of the issues, we are prompted to examine the questions anyway, and find that there was no error, manifest or otherwise.