Court Opinion

ID: 9695158
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:09:57.155133+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:07.888367
License: Public Domain

OLSZEWSKI, Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. In light of constitutional considerations, the “knock and announce” rule, and clear-cut case *242law in this Commonwealth, I believe that the trial court correctly suppressed the evidence seized in the instant case. In reaching this conclusion, I acknowledge that when it comes to unoccupied dwellings, it is futile to require the authorities to knock and announce their identity and purpose and wait for a refusal of entry from someone who is not there. See Commonwealth v. Baker, 361 Pa.Super. 401, 522 A.2d 643 (1987). The simple fact that there was no response to their knock, however, is insufficient to establish a dweller’s absence. Commonwealth v. Wallace, 293 Pa. Super. 73, 437 A.2d 996 (1981). The occupant “could have been asleep, or avoiding an old girlfriend or a bill collector.” Id., 293 Pa.Superior Ct. at 77, 437 A.2d at 998.1
I further recognize that police are not required to comply with the formalities of procedural rules when to do so would be a “useless act.” Baker, supra, 361 Pa.Super. at 406, 522 A.2d at 646. We have mandated, however, that the police have knowledge that an occupant is away from his dwelling before they enter and search it without complying with the knock and announce requirements. Id.
Instantly, the Commonwealth does not dispute that there was no announcement of purpose nor claim that there were exigent circumstances that would have justified entry without proper announcement. Rather, the Commonwealth asserts that the violation was at most a technical one which does not require suppression. The Commonwealth attempts to support its position by analogizing the present facts to those of Baker. In Baker, however, the police were informed by children in the vicinity of defendant’s residence and defendant’s brother that defendant was not at home.
I am not persuaded by the Commonwealth’s argument. The law in Pennsylvania is clear that the failure of the officers to announce purpose cannot be excused by the fact *243that ultimately appellee’s home was found to be unoccupied. Wallace, supra, 293 Pa.Super. at 77, 437 A.2d at 998. It is not “too much to expect of the officers to announce their purpose in demanding admission____‘[t]he burden of making an express announcement is certainly slight. A few more words by the officers would have satisfied the requirements in this case.’ ” Commonwealth v. Newman, 429 Pa. 441, 447, 240 A.2d 795, 798 (1968), quoting Miller v. United States, 357 U.S. 301, 309-310, 78 S.Ct. 1190, 1195-1196, 2 L.Ed.2d 1332 (1958); Commonwealth v. Golden, 277 Pa.Super. 180, 186, 419 A.2d 721, 724 (1980).
It is my opinion that the execution of the warrant, because of the failure to state purpose or ascertain appellee’s absence from the premises, violated appellee’s right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment, see Newman, supra; as well as the “knock and announce” rule codified in Pa.R.Crim.P. 2007. The failure to announce purpose was not, therefore, a mere technical violation of Rule 2007 as the Commonwealth would have us believe. While I realize the importance of the use of seized evidence in making the Commonwealth’s case, I cannot reconcile reversing the trial court’s decision in the face of compelling case law. I would hold that the trial court correctly excluded the evidence because of a violation of constitutional magnitude.

. We note that the facts in Wallace are analogous to the facts in the case at bar. In both instances, when Rule 2007 was violated, the occupant was not at home but the police did not have knowledge of his absence prior to entering the dwelling.