Opinion ID: 1989015
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: whether officer rinn had probable cause to arrest defendant?

Text: The defendant argues that the initial arrest by Officer Rinn was invalid as a result of its having been made without probable cause. He further argues that the items seized in the later search of the automobile pursuant to a warrant were also inadmissible as the fruits of the initial arrest. We begin our inquiry with the findings of fact made by the trial justice, who determined that there was probable cause for the arrest. The trial justice found that Officer Rinn received a description of a vehicle that had left the scene of an attempted murder in North Kingstown. The North Kingstown police department had broadcast a description, and the East Greenwich police department's dispatcher relayed the description to the East Greenwich police. Later Officer Rinn received a further description of the vehicle from Officer Maciel of the North Kingstown police department. He found that the description was specific in regard to the make of the car (Chevrolet Monte Carlo), and to the facts that it was of a dark color with a light top, that it was an older car and was headed north on Post Road toward East Greenwich, and that it had a male operator. The trial justice summarized his findings as follows: Therefore, the Court finds that the description of the car was sufficiently specific and accurate to allow Officer Rinn to rely thereon. Furthermore, his presumption that the male standing by the car had been the operator of the car was reasonable. The above, coupled with defendant's disheveled appearance, could lead a reasonable person to believe that the defendant, as the presumed operator of the vehicle described, had been involved with the attempted murder in North Kingstown. The trial justice went on to hold that Officer Rinn had probable cause to arrest defendant and that the subsequent searches of defendant and the car were legal as searches incident to the arrest. In passing upon this issue, we follow the same standard applied by the trial justice that an arrest without a warrant may be made only upon probable cause. State v. Brennan, 526 A.2d 483, 485 (R.I. 1987); State v. Baton, 488 A.2d 696, 700 (R.I. 1985). Probable cause to arrest has been defined in numerous cases as consisting of those facts and circumstances within the police officer's knowledge at the moment of arrest and of which he has reasonably trustworthy information that would warrant a reasonably prudent person's believing that a crime has been committed and that the prospective arrestee had committed it. State v. Adams, 481 A.2d 718, 728-29 (R.I. 1984). This factual requirement has been described as a mosaic of facts and circumstances that should be viewed cumulatively as through the eyes of a reasonable and cautious police officer on the scene, guided by his or her experience and training. In re Armand, 454 A.2d 1216, 1218 (R.I. 1983) (quoting In re John C., 425 A.2d 536, 538-39, cert. denied, 453 U.S. 922, 101 S.Ct. 3159, 69 L.Ed.2d 1005 (1981)). There is, of course, a significant difference between the quantum of evidence necessary to establish probable cause and that necessary to establish proof of guilt. In re Armand, 454 A.2d at 1218; State v. Welch, 441 A.2d 539, 541 (R.I. 1982). For parallel holdings by the Supreme Court of the United States, see, e.g., Texas v. Brown, 460 U.S. 730, 103 S.Ct. 1535, 75 L.Ed.2d 502 (1983); Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970); Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949). In In re Armand, 454 A.2d at 1218, we emphasized that knowledge of the fact that a crime had actually been committed was an important element in determining probable cause. See State v. Frazier, 421 A.2d 546, 550 (R.I. 1980). We also cautioned in Armand that a finding of probable cause in any given case rarely furnishes a formula for making similar findings in other cases because probable cause depends upon the facts and circumstances of the particular case being reviewed. 454 A.2d at 1218. Consequently we have no intention of distinguishing the various cases from other jurisdictions that the defendant has cited on this issue of probable cause. Our own cases and those of the United States Supreme Court furnish adequate guidance to reach a determination of this issue. It is our obligation in dealing with this question to exercise our independent judgment on this constitutional analysis while giving reasonable deference to the findings of historical fact made by the trial justice. Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 32, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 1629, 10 L.Ed.2d 726, 737 (1963); State v. Jenison, 442 A.2d 866, 872 (R.I. 1982). Viewing the facts surrounding this arrest in light of standards enunciated in the cited cases, we hold in the exercise of independent judgment that the facts as found by the trial justice unerringly point to the conclusion that Officer Rinn had probable cause to believe that the operator of this vehicle, as he stood beside the vehicle bleeding from a gash on the cheek, was the person previously described as having fled the scene of the crime of attempted murder. Officer Rinn had information of the utmost reliability that a crime of attempted murder had been committed. He had the description of a rather singular vehicle operated by a male who was found in the vicinity of the crime and headed northward as previously reported and matching the description given. The fact that the suspect was bleeding would support an inference that he had recently been involved in a violent encounter. The defendant argues with more ingenuity than persuasiveness that other cars registered in Rhode Island may also have been Monte Carlo automobiles of a similar color. This might be of significance if one were dealing with an issue of proof beyond a reasonable doubt but not of probable cause. By its very definition the possibility of error is always inherent in the determination of probable cause. It is simply a threshold requirement for invading a suspect's right to privacy. There was ample evidence to justify the intrusion upon the privacy of this defendant as he stood bleeding beside his rather specifically described automobile shortly after a bloody crime had been committed. Consequently we are of the opinion that the trial justice did not err in finding probable cause and in denying defendant's motion to suppress the fruits of the initial search as well as the later search based upon the issuance of a warrant.