Court Opinion

ID: 9757394
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:38:33.827721+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:38.444044
License: Public Domain

ROWLEY, Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. Unlike the majority, I am of the opinion that the General Assembly clearly and unambiguously intended, and provided in 18 Pa.C.S. § 5704(2)(ii), for the warrantless interception and recording of oral communications between a consenting informant and a third person engaged in suspected criminal activities. The words of a statute must be given their plain meaning. Com. v. Stanley, 498 Pa. 326, 446 A.2d 583 (1982). “When a statute is not ambiguous and the wording clear, then the letter of [the] statute may not be circumvented on the pretext of pursuing its spirit.” Chesler v. Government Employees Ins. Co., 302 Pa.Super. 356, 361, 448 A.2d 1080, 1082, (1982), revd. on other grounds 503 Pa. 292, 469 A.2d 560 (1983), amended on other grounds 504 Pa. 426, 475 A.2d 102 (1984). I would not, therefore, circumvent what I perceive to be the plain meaning of § 5704(2)(ii) in order to make the section compatible with the majority’s construction of Pennsylvania Constitution, Art. I, § 8.
However, I am also of the opinion that § 5704(2)(ii), as I read it, not only does not violate the United States Constitution, but it also does not violate Art. I, § 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Section 5704(2)(ii) does not give unlimited and indiscriminate authority to law enforcement officials. On the contrary, to trigger the application of § 5704(2)(ii), there must be suspected criminal activity afoot, the informant must voluntarily consent to the interception and the Attorney General or District Attorney or their respective *271deputies, must give prior approval for the interception. Furthermore, the interception when it occurs, is subject to the requirements of § 5714(a) and custody of the recorded evidence is to remain in the Attorney General, the District Attorney, or their deputies. These limitations are sufficient to guard against the unlimited and indiscriminate use of such interceptions and the evidence obtained therefrom and act as an adequate deterrent to innappropriate police activity. Moreover, such limitations drastically minimize the likelihood of an invasion of the lawabiding citizen’s legitimate expectations of privacy. As a result, I would hold that the trial court properly refused to suppress the evidence obtained as a result of the consensual participant monitoring utilized in this case. Therefore, I would affirm the Judgment of Sentence for all of the reasons set forth in Commonwealth v. Harvey, 348 Pa.Super. 544, 502 A.2d 679 (1985).
Recognizing, however, that the majority has determined that a warrant is required in circumstances like those before us, were I to reach the question of whether there was probable cause to obtain the warrant in this case, I would agree with Judge Beck and Judge Olszewski that the affidavit here adequately established probable cause.