Court Opinion

ID: 9756012
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:02:50.562065+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:13.883663
License: Public Domain

OLSZEWSKI, Judge,
dissenting:
While the expression of the majority view provides a persuasive analysis and sound rationale, I am obliged to differ and respectfully dissent. I feel that the detective had reasonable suspicion to make the investigatory stop.
Certainly, in eases of anonymous tips, the court must analyze the “totality of the circumstances” in determining whether there was reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot. Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990). The majority relies on the case of Commonwealth v. Jackson, 548 Pa. 484, 698 A.2d 571 (Pa.1997), where our Supreme Court held that there was no reasonable suspicion when the only corroboration of the anonymous tip was that the described person was at the particular location. The majority analogizes the instant case to Jackson by indicating that “the only detail the police were able to corroborate was the fact that appellant was at a particular location” in the instant case.
To the contrary, in the instant case there is more significant corroboration that, given the totality of the circumstances, gives rise to reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot. The anonymous tip gave the name of the defendant, his location, and that he was selling marijuana and Percocet. Defendant was indeed found at the described location. Further, the suppression court found that the detective knew the defendant and had knowledge that the defendant was taking prescription drugs for a motorcycle accident. The fact that defendant was known to be taking medication for an accident along with the anonymous tip that defendant was selling Percocet, a prescription drug often given for pain relief, gave significant credibility to the anonymous tip. The naming of the particular prescription drug that was being sold, a drug that coincided with the detective’s knowledge of the defendant’s medical condition, is beyond mere chance and indicates the *894degree of familiarity needed to satisfy the reasonable suspicion standard.
Because there was reasonable suspicion to permit the investigatory stop in the parking lot, evidence gained when defendant voluntarily emptied his pockets and recovered subject to the search following a lawful arrest was properly admissible.