Court Opinion

ID: 9733162
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:55:36.15491+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:38.865165
License: Public Domain

ROBERT M. BELL, Judge,
dissenting.
As a threshold matter, I wish to make clear that I agree with that portion of part 1 of the majority opinion in which the State’s argument that appellant’s arrest, in this case, may be justified on the basis of an investigative stop, which blossomed into an arrest on probable cause upon the appellant’s identification by the Washington, D.C. victim, was rejected. If the effect of that rejection were to render premature the fears I expressed in my dissenting opinion in Farrow v. State, 68 Md.App. 519, 514 A.2d 35 (1986), cert. denied, 308 Md. 382, 519 A.2d 1283 (1987) — that the general rule requiring probable cause for arrest is being swallowed by the exception permitting an investigative stop upon reasonable suspicion — I would applaud it. I do not do so, however, because, immediately after rejecting the State’s argument, the majority proceeds to find, on the facts of this case, that probable cause exists. It thus has dealt the concept of probable cause another devastating blow, one that is at least equal to, if it does not exceed, the intensity of the one struck by Malcolm v. State, 70 Md.App. 426, 52 A.2d 796 (1987) and, in effect, has continued the evisceration of the vitality of the concept. I have an irreconcilable disagreement with this holding.
Probable cause is a “non-technical conception of a reasonable ground for belief of guilt ... but more evidence than would arouse a mere suspicion.” Johnson v. State, 8 Md.App. 187, 191, 259 A.2d 97 (1969). See Parker v. State, 66 Md.App. 1, 7, 502 A.2d 510 (1986). As such, probable cause requires less evidentiary justification than proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but more than a reasonable “articulable suspicion.” See Watkins v. State, 288 Md. 597, 606, 420 A.2d 270 (1980). Probable cause exists if the facts and *341circumstances known to the officer, derived from either personal observations or reasonably trustworthy information, warrant a reasonably cautious person in believing that a felony has been committed and that the person arrested committed it. Edwardsen v. State, 231 Md. 332, 336, 190 A.2d 84 (1963); Mulcahy v. State, 221 Md. 413, 421, 158 A.2d 80 (1960). It’s existence must be determined “from the viewpoint of a prudent and cautious police officer on the scene at the time of the arrest [and t]he question to be answered is whether such an officer in the particular circumstances, conditioned by his observations and information, and guided by the whole of his police experience, reasonably could have believed that a crime had been committed by the person to be arrested____” Parker, 66 Md.App. at 8, 502 A.2d 510, quoting Patterson v. United States, 301 A.2d 67, 69 (D.C.1973). The test of the existence or non-existence of probable cause is an objective one. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1883, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).
It is important to consider what the officers knew at the moment of arrest, which occurred at approximately 12:21 p.m. They were aware that: a crime had been committed between 11:30 a.m. and 12:00 noon; the person committing the crime was described by the victim as:
[A] black male. In his 20’s. 5 — ft. 8. 180 lbs. Wearing a dark leather jacket.
The complainant believes it might have been black. She states that he also wore she believes blue jeans;
when appellant was seen shortly before he was arrested, walking in a white upperclass neighborhood, in which there was little pedestrian traffic, he was wearing a dark leather jacket and gray or gray pinstripe trousers;1 and appellant *342was perspiring profusely on a day on which the temperature was between 60 and 70 degrees.
Of equal importance is what the officers did not know. They did not know, except in the most general terms, where the crime scene was in relation to the area in which appellant was observed and arrested. The record reflects that the officers surmised that Edmonds Street is “somewhere around here”, but neither knew exactly where it was and neither was “familiar with that particular area.” Thus, it is obvious that the officers had no idea whether appellant was walking in the direction of, or away from, the crime scene. Finally, the officers did not know from where appellant was coming, nor how far he had travelled.
Additional facts must also be considered. Appellant was not observed to do anything suspicious; on the contrary, he approached the officers to ask for directions. Other than the approximate temperature of that day, the record disclosed no information which would have tended to explain appellant’s perspiring or from which one could conclude that the fact that appellant was perspiring was a significant observation tending to support the existence of probable cause.
The greater the extent to which there is correspondence between the description of the criminal actor and the person accosted and the closer the proximity of the place of accosting, both in terms of time and distance, to the crime scene, the stronger the cause for believing that there is a connection between the crime and the person accosted. Cleveland v. State, 8 Md.App. 204, 259 A.2d 73 (1969) (Cleveland I) and Cleveland v. State, 12 Md.App. 712, 280 A.2d 520 (1971), (Cleveland II) are illustrative.
In Cleveland I, the State had failed, at trial, to present evidence with respect to the “information upon which the arresting officer acted.” 8 Md.App. at 222, 259 A.2d 73. *343We explained why the evidence before the trial court was insufficient to demonstrate that the arresting officer had probable cause, in part, as follows:
We cannot say that the information shown to have been within the knowledge of the arresting officer established probable cause to believe that the appellant was the robber. Nor is the deficiency in the evidence supplied by facts and circumstances within the personal knowledge of the officer. The time which elapsed between the commission of the robbery and the observation of the appellant by the arresting officer was not established, although it apparently was of relatively short duration. The distance from the scene of the crime and the place where the arresting officer observed the appellant was not stated in the testimony, although apparently it was somewhere in the proximate vicinity.
8 Md.App. at 221, 259 A.2d 73. We had previously noted the absence of any testimony concerning the description of the suspect given to the officer. 8 Md.App. at 220, 259 A.2d 73. The defects in the evidence having been cured at Cleveland’s retrial, in Cleveland II, we affirmed the trial court’s finding of probable cause, explaining:
Sergeant Boulter, at the time of the arrest of the Appellant, at a site within one-half mile of the holdup and within moments of its occurrence, was relying on trustworthy information from the Sheriff that a felony had been committed. His observation of the Appellant’s height, weight, “rapid gait and furtive manner” and wearing apparel, which matched that contained in the description of the robber, gave rise to reasonable grounds, beyond mere suspicion, for belief that the Appellant was the person who committed the robbery. (emphasis added)
12 Md.App. at 721, 280 A.2d 520.
The converse, of course, is true also: the greater the lack of correspondence between the description of the criminal actor and the accosted person and the further removed, in time and space, the place of accosting is from the scene of *344the crime, the weaker the cause for finding a connection between the person accosted and the crime. In this regard, it is also important to note that circumstances existing at the time of the accosting which support or negate such a connection must also be considered. The surrounding circumstances must be such as to make reasonable the inference that the person accosted committed the crime under investigation. Therefore, whether the person accosted, before, at, or after, the accosting, behaves in a suspicious manner is significant in assessing the reasonableness of the officers’ belief.
Turning to the instant case, it must be conceded that appellant met the general, non-specific description contained in the lookout broadcast. This, along with the facts that appellant’s clothing corresponded to the lookout broadcast clothing description in one particular and appellant was arrested at a location which the police believed to be generally in the area of the crime scene, justifiably and reasonably aroused the officers’ suspicions; the information did not, however, amount to probable cause for arrest. This is true because of the discrepancy between the clothing worn by appellant and that worn by the criminal actor and the inability of the officers, because of their lack of specific knowledge concerning the location of the crime scene in relationship to the place of arrest, to reasonably relate appellant’s presence at the place of arrest to the crime reported. When these factors are considered, the circumstances simply do not justify anything other than suspicion, reasonable though it may be, that appellant may have committed the crime.
The majority does not dispute the generality of the officers’ information concerning the crime scene’s location visa-vis the place of arrest; it says, however, that “[s]ince appellant was observed approximately one mile from the crime scene, a distance consistent with the elapsed time and *345within minutes after receipt of the initial broadcast2 and was the only person observed in the area, the police could rely on the location of apprehension as a factor establishing probable cause to arrest.” At the outset, it must be observed that the majority’s conclusion that the distance between the crime scene and the place of arrest was consistent with the elapsed time was, like its statement of the distance, based upon an after the fact determination. When appellant was arrested, neither officer knew the distance to Edmonds Street; consequently, they could not have known whether the elapsed time was consistent. Furthermore, “within minutes after receipt of the initial broadcast” refers to a time frame closer to 20 to 21 minutes, than to 15.3 The most serious problem with the majority’s analysis, however, is its failure to recognize that probable cause demands that some connection be shown between the presence of a person at a particular place, at a particular time, and the crime under investigation. The fact that appellant was at the place where he was arrested within a short time after a crime had been committed is of no consequence unless and until there is a reasonable basis for believing that it would have been unusual for him to be there otherwise or that the circumstances surrounding his being there give rise to a reasonable belief that his being there is connected with the crime.
Appellant was arrested at just before 12:30 in the afternoon in a section of Washington, D.C., a city with a large black population, including black males, within a relatively short distance of major intersections, a hospital, a public *346park, and a bus stop. It cannot be said that it was unusual for appellant to be at the place where he was arrested; the fact that he was there at a time when there was little pedestrian traffic does not make it so. Nor does that fact suggest, or, in any way, supply a basis for a reasonable belief, that appellant committed a crime. And the circumstances surrounding appellant’s presence did not connect him with the crime. As pointed out above, the officers did not have sufficient information concerning the location of the crime scene, from which it could be inferred that appellant was coming from the area of the crime. It is interesting to note, in that regard, that the record does not reveal, even after the fact, whether the direction in which appellant was traveling was significant from the standpoint of the crime scene.4 Moreover, there was a discrepancy between the clothing description broadcast in the lookout and the clothing worn by appellant. Therefore, the necessary nexus was not established by reference to that factor.
The victim described the trousers worn by her assailant as “blue jeans”. The trousers worn by appellant were variously described as dark or gray or gray pinstripe;5 they were not described as “jeans”. Whether the victim used the term “blue jeans” generically, to refer to a class of leisure trousers so popular these days, or descriptively, to refer only to color, there was a significant discrepancy which cannot be ignored between her description of her assailant’s trousers and the trousers worn by appellant. While an inference that appellant committed the crime could reasonably have been drawn had appellant met both the *347general physical description6 and the clothing description in the warrant, a discrepancy in an item of clothing substantially dilutes the reasonableness of such an inference.
The majority, while acknowledging an inconsistency between the lookout description of the assailant’s trousers and the trousers worn by appellant, concludes that the inconsistency is not “grossly inconsistent” and that the lack of certainty, on the part of the victim as to whether her assailant was wearing “blue jeans” has “some bearing on how the police officers who received the broadcast processed that information.” It perceives any inconsistency between the broadcast description and that related by the officers as generalizations based on perceptions, which are “an element that goes to the probability of a certain fact being true.”
It thus appears that the test of probable cause that the majority applies in analyzing the clothing discrepancy is largely a subjective one: it seems to suggest that since it is the perception of the observer that is important, the observer’s subjective belief that what he observes corresponds to the information he received is dispositive. That simply is not the case. The test of probable cause is an objective one. It is not the police officers’ perception of what the victim meant, but what the victim said, objectively viewed, that is controlling and which must be compared, again objectively, with what the officers observed. This is precisely the reason that the circumstances surrounding an arrest, which bear on the reasonableness of police action, must play an important part in determining the existence of probable *348cause. The officer’s perceptions, particularly where they are inconsistent with the objective information provided by the victim, simply do not suffice.
The majority relies on Brown v. United States, 365 F.2d 976 (D.C.Cir.1966) for the proposition that “... discrepancies, which can be the result of the victim’s excitement or poor visibility or of the suspect’s changing clothes, [do] not destroy the ascertainment made on the basis of the accurate portion of the identification, which was by itself enough to constitute probable cause.” Id., 365 F.2d at 978. I agree with the holding, but find it inapposite to the facts sub judice. Unlike here, in Brown, the Court found probable cause because:
The first officer who heard the “lookout” over the radio acted on the part that said a Negro male of heavy build in a maroon 1954 Ford had just robbed the Howard Johnson on Virginia Ave. This information was sufficiently particular to lead the officers directly to the suspect____ The total number of 1954 Fords meeting that description being driven in 1964 was limited; still smaller was the total number being driven at 4:30 on a Monday morning, and yet smaller those driven in that immediate neighborhood at that time by heavy Negro males. Ordinary human experience alone, without resort to the precise factors of the law of probability, tells us this. (Footnotes and citations omitted),
and
The information received by the police was that the suspect was driving a 1954 maroon Ford; it turned out at trial that it was a 1952 car. One of the arresting officers testified that he thought Appellant was driving a 1952 or 1953 or 1954 Ford and that these model years were all pretty much identical to him. What they properly looked for — and found — was an “old” maroon Ford car. Appellant and his car thus reasonably matched the description received.
Id. In a footnote, the Court pointed out that the officers followed the car “for several blocks travelling in a direction *349leading away from the location of the Howard Johnson.” Id. The situation here is far different.
The State proffers that two additional factors, i.e., the demographics of the area in which appellant was arrested and the fact that when first observed, appellant was perspiring profusely, buttress its conclusion that the trial court’s probable cause determination was correct. The majority adopts one of those two factors as “substantially contributing] to a finding of probable cause.”7 I find neither factor to have any value in this case.
While the demographics of an area may have some bearing on probable cause, see Alfred v. State, 61 Md.App. 647, 656-57, 487 A.2d 1228 (1985), as the majority correctly observes, this effect has not been shown in this case. Aside from the majority’s rationale — that the officers did not rely on demographic evidence — I posit that the facts and circumstances of this case would not have justified its use even had the officers relied on it. The evidence on the issue is not complete. Furthermore, since the arrest occurred in the nation’s capítol, a city with a population in excess of 50 percent black, in an area in which it is not unusual to see black persons, the demographics of the area could not have any significance. In any event, in appellant’s words:
If undue weight is accorded this factor, there is the considerable danger ethnic or racially homogenous neighborhoods would be converted into Fourth Amendment war zones for minorities, whose presence therein will place them at risk, stripped of the Fourth Amendment protection available to the rest of the citizenry.
The second factor that the State posits, and the majority accepts, as supportive of probable cause, is the fact that appellant, when first observed, was perspiring profusely. Other than this observation, the police point to nothing *350unusual about appellant or his demeanor. Perspiring, even profusely, on a public street, in 60-70 degree weather, is not, in and of itself, a circumstance which leads inevitably, or even reasonably, to the conclusion that the person perspiring has been engaged in criminal activity. Persons, even innocent ones, perspire for a variety of reasons unrelated to criminal activity; even honest exertions of energy, including walking, may cause one to perspire. In this regard, it must also be considered that a temperature of between 60 and 70 degrees is not exactly frigid and may even be quite warm depending upon other factors, such as humidity, the amount of sunshine, and the weight of the clothing being worn. It is patent, therefore, that this factor, in the absence of observations tending to negate, or bring into question, its innocence, adds nothing of value to the probable cause inquiry.
In my view, the absence of any evidence of suspicious behavior on the part of appellant is extremely important in this case. The presence of suspicious behavior would have been a circumstance from which the officers could reasonably have inferred a connection between appellant and the crime. Without its presence, for the reasons previously given, no such inference is possible. Carey v. United States, 377 A.2d 40 (D.C.App.1977) is not to the contrary. There, the reliability of a description of criminal suspects, broadcast by the police, was questioned because it was arguably inconsistent with a prior description given by the victim. Except for the age factor, the suspects met the broadcast description. The Court refused to consider the discrepancy between the descriptions. It was in this context that the court made the remarks attributed to it on p. 20 of the majority opinion. When, as here, there is no such exact correspondence between the description broadcast and the persons arrested, reference to other circumstances, including the absence of any observations of suspicious behavior, becomes important.
The information possessed by the officers did not rise to the level of probable cause. They only had cause to be *351reasonably suspicious. Perhaps their suspicions could have blossomed into probable cause had they conducted an investigation on the scene; perhaps, questioning appellant would have elicited suspicious responses or behavior sufficient to elevate their suspicions to probable cause. The officers did not choose to conduct an investigation prior to appellant’s arrest and an appellate court may not speculate as to what such an investigation might have revealed.
I submit that appellant’s arrest, being unsupported by probable cause, was illegal. I dissent.

. One of the officers testified that appellant’s pants were “dark”. The other officer, who wrote a report of the arrest, testified that appellant’s pants were gray and acknowledged that his report indicated that appellant wore “pinstripe” pants. Despite the testimony, the majority inexplicably asserts that "This Court will never know if the report made contemporaneous with the arrest provided more accurate or *342detailed information to support the officer’s probable cause determination’’.

. The majority speculates that appellant was in the area “possibly within 15 minutes of the crime."

. The initial broadcast, made at 12:12 p.m., indicated that the offense occurred between 11:30 a.m. and 12:00 noon. The second broadcast, was received, upon one of the officer’s request, at 12:21 p.m., shortly after appellant had been seen and had approached the officers for directions. Appellant was arrested shortly after 12:21. Thus, it would appear that appellant was seen in the area shortly before 12:21, a period some nine minutes after the first broadcast, and 20 to 21 minutes after the latest time at which the offense could have occurred.

. The majority comments, in note 7, that appellant sought directions as to how to get to 22nd and Q Streets, a location in the opposite direction to that in which he was traveling. Although, as its comment suggests, the majority may view appellant’s actions as somehow unusual, I do not; indeed, it would appear that the fact that he was walking away from the direction in which he wanted to go is indicative of the reasonableness of his request for directions.

. See n. 1.

. I submit that it is significantly more important, for probable cause purposes, that the clothing description match the clothing worn by the suspect than that the general physical descriptions match. In the ordinary case, a clothing description will be met by a much smaller number of persons in a given area than will a general physical description. And the more specific the clothing description, the less likely it is that there will be multiple matches. In the case of physical description, however, multiple matches are a distinct and real possibility except in the case of the most specific and exact physical description.

. The majority discusses these factors as if they were suggested by appellant. Although he discusses them in an effort to persuade us of their inapplicability, in point of fact, appellant relies only on the lack of any suspicious behavior on his part as tending to negate the existence of probable cause.