Court Opinion

ID: 9766294
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:39:39.31699+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:21.096987
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent. The trial court determined that the defendant was arrested without probable cause and suppressed the statement obtained from him following that arrest. The trial court’s decision follows from its findings of fact. These findings are supported by the record. *610Therefore, the order of the trial court should be affirmed.
The trial court found that the reliability of Michael Beatty, upon whose statement the police relied in making the arrest, had not been established, and that neither his statement nor other information relied on by the police provided probable cause to arrest. The majority reverses, holding that the suppression court’s findings are not supported by the record. I cannot agree.
The standard for review of suppression orders is set out in Commonwealth v. Kichline, 468 Pa. 265, 361 A.2d 282 (1976), a case in which the suppression court decided questions of fact in favor of the prosecution:
“The suppression court, which hears and evaluates the testimony, is required to make findings of fact and conclusions of law. . . . Our responsibility on review is To determine whether the record supports the factual findings of the court below and the legitimacy of the inferences and legal conclusions drawn from those findings.’ In making this determination, this Court will consider only the evidence of the prosecution’s witnesses and so much of the evidence for the defense as, fairly read in the context of the record as a whole, remains uncontradicted.”
Id. at-, 361 A.2d at 290 (Citations omitted). Necessarily, the same standard of review applies when the defense prevails at the suppression hearing: findings of fact and the legitimacy of the inferences drawn from those findings, viewed in the light most favorable to the defendant, must be sustained if supported in the record. It makes no difference that the Commonwealth’s evidence, standing alone, could support an opposite result. Moreover, it is within the province of the suppression court to determine the credibility of the witnesses. Commonwealth v. Bruno, 466 Pa. 245, 255, 352 A.2d 40, 45 (1976).
*611The majority today simply ignores these well established principles and proceeds to assume the role of a fact finder.
When the majority claims that “[t]o permit the lower court’s decision to stand would unduly hamper law enforcement,” I can only conclude that the majority believes that it is an abuse of discretion for a suppression court to refuse to adopt the prosecution’s version of the facts and version of the inferences that should be drawn from those facts.1
The record fully supports the suppression court’s conclusion that Beatty was not reliable. Beatty had already given an inconsistent statement to Detective Porter. The court heard testimony from Beatty and Porter and, based on the court’s evaluation of their testimony, determined that Beatty was not a reliable informant. The majority, however, ignoring the trial court’s findings, states that Beatty’s statement was reliable because it was in accord with statements given by others to Detective Porter. The majority concludes that Beatty’s statement, together with these other statements, established probable cause.
Yet, the other statements accusing appellant of the killing were, as the majority admits, “neighborhood *612gossip.” 2 The suppression court properly concluded that this gossip was also unreliable and insufficient either to establish Beatty’s reliability or to establish probable cause independently. This Court is bound by the suppression court’s finding because it is fully supported in the record. Thus, there is no probable cause for appellant’s arrest because there is no “reasonable trustworthy information . . . sufficient to warrant a prudent man in believing that the [defendant] has committed . an offense.” Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91, 85 S.Ct. 223, 225, 13 L.Ed.2d 142, 145 (1964).
The suppression court found that appellant was illegally arrested. That finding is supported in this record. Its order suppressing appellant’s statements should therefore be affirmed.
MANDERINO, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.

. The majority states that the four cases relied on by the suppression court do not support its result because “they are not factually similar to the instant case.” However, it fails to recognize the distinct procedural posture of this case. In all four of those cases, this Court reversed a suppression court’s determination that probable cause existed. Commonweath v. Bailey, 460 Pa. 498, 333 A.2d 883 (1975); Commonwealth v. Daniels, 455 Pa. 552, 317 A.2d 237 (1974); Commonwealth v. Jeffries, 454 Pa. 320, 311 A.2d 914 (1973); Commonwealth v. Mamon, 449 Pa. 249, 297 A.2d 471 (1972). In each case this Court applied the limited standard of appellate review, accepting all of the Commonwealth’s evidence, including the credibility of its witnesses, as true. The same benefit accorded the Commonwealth’s evidence in those cases must be given to appellant’s evidence here. The majority’s analysis effectively denies appellant the same evidentiary benefit afforded the Commonwealth when it successfully opposes a defense motion to suppress evidence.

. The majority relies extensively on the testimony of one witness. See Majority Opinion at n. 2. This witness concluded that appellant was responsible for the killing because a girl in the neighborhood, who did not see the killing, blamed it on the appellant, and because he did not answer when the witness asked him if he was responsible. It does not follow that because hearsay is admissible at suppression hearings that the reliability of these statements is conclusively established. Nor is the trial court required to adopt the same inferences as the witness. The record adequately supports the trial court’s finding that this highly dubious testimony was not sufficiently reliable to establish probable cause. When the majority relies on this testimony to overturn the suppression order it ignores the proper scope of appellate review and substitutes its findings of fact for those of the trial court.