Court Opinion

ID: 9692638
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 15:59:08.390184+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:35.807215
License: Public Domain

GALLAGHER, Associate Judge
(dissenting) :
I agree with the majority that probable cause to search in this case rests on the reliability of the person supplying the police with the information about the gun in the car. As to this factor, when asked concerning the basis of the citizen’s statement that appellant possessed a weapon the only government witness, the arresting officer (not the officer who talked to the citizen) candidly replied “I don’t know.” Consequently, the record is devoid of any information on whether the reporting citizen actually had adequate information that appellant possessed the gun. The majority opinion necessarily merely assumes the citizen had seen the gun.
This is not, of course, to say that an officer who receives a radio run should explore the basis for the request that he pursue a car. That would be most impracticable. His duty is to obey immediately the instructions given. Whiteley v. Warden, 401 U.S. 560, 568, 91 S.Ct. 1031, 28 L.Ed. 2d 306 (1971). But, on the other hand, in response to a motion to suppress in a case such as this the government must stand ready to establish that the information given by a citizen in the first instance is sufficient to establish probable cause for an arrest or search.1
I also agree with the majority that the government should, if at all possible, present as a witness “that particular officer to whom the citizen complains since his testimony is obviously relevant and material in establishing that the complainant was an eyewitness or victim.” I would go further, however, and say that the officer to whom the citizen complains, or the citizen, may at times, as here, be the only witness who can supply the information necessary to support an arrest or search. My main disagreement with the majority is that I consider the serious lack of information here requires a reversal. The majority opinion by simply assuming that the required information existed concludes that it was unnecessary to produce the testimony at the hearing. T do not agree that such assumption in place of evidence may be indulged.
This may be a good opportunity to relate what I have been observing recurringly in motion to suppress hearings. More often than not, those hearings involve suppression of weapons or narcotics (contraband). Where this is the case, the suppression hearing usually casts the die one way or the other for the defendant. In most cases, whichever side prevails at the hearing prevails ultimately. Guilty pleas or stipulations on the facts commonly result where motions to suppress are denied. Yet, I find — as I found here — that the government all too often does not put its best testimonial foot forward at the hearing to establish the validity of the arrest or search. Not only is the suppression hearing the means by which the government establishes that the arrest or search was valid under the Constitution but, as I have said, the hearing in this type of case is frequently the “main show” in the case. For these reasons, the government should present the more probative testimony in its possession in order to support the arrest, this was not done here but, instead, the least informed witness was presented.
In this case, the government asserted in its written opposition to the motion to suppress the gun that the informant “was a private citizen who had seen the gun.” Yet, it presented no witness who could establish this. Presumably, the reporting officer or citizen would have so testified if either had been called as a witness. If so, this appeal may well have resulted in a *807routine affirmance instead of a divided opinion on the validity of the arrest. So far as the record discloses, it would have been a simple matter to support the search and seizure. Since in my view the search was not supported, I dissent.
It may be this case will serve as an example of the unnecessary litigation which arises when the government neglects to offer at a suppression hearing the more probative testimony, rather than the least probative,2 to support the validity of an arrest or search. A policy of producing witnesses in a position to effectively support the arrest3 will result in an enhanced law enforcement effort and, consequently, will be in the public interest.

. As the majority opinion states, we are not here discussing the basis for a Terry stop and frisk but, rather, a search of the car.

. Here, it appears likely that either the reporting officer or the citizen may have been adequate.

. As I have indicated, the only government witness presented was in no position to answer what I view as the critical question and consequently replied “I don’t know.”