Court Opinion

ID: 9696905
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:01:21.269518+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:27.564870
License: Public Domain

*384ZAPPALA, Justice,
dissenting.
As I find that the information given by the anonymous callers and the subsequent police corroboration demonstrate a similar degree of reliability as that found to constitute reasonable suspicion to support an investigatory stop under the Fourth Amendment in Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990), I am compelled to dissent. Had Appellants properly preserved claims under Article I, Section 8, of the Pennsylvania Constitution, I would have reached a contrary conclusion. See Commonwealth v. Goodwin, No. 37 W.D. Appeal Docket 1997, (Zappala, J., Concurring).1
The majority properly notes that “the Court in Alabama v. White held that police were justified in conducting an investigatory stop when they were able to corroborate an anonymous tipster’s information that demonstrated a specific familiarity with the defendant’s affairs, including predictions relating to ‘future actions of third persons not easily predicted.’ ” Op. at 813, citing Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. at 332, 110 S.Ct. at 2417. Although this general proposition is sound, the United States Supreme Court’s application of this rule of law to the facts in Alabama v. White compels me to part company with the majority in these cases.
The anonymous caller in Alabama v. White stated that the suspect would be leaving a particular apartment complex at a certain time in a specified vehicle. The caller further informed the police that the suspect was going to a motel and that she would be in possession of an ounce of cocaine inside a brown attaché case. The officer observed the defendant exit the building, carrying nothing in her hands, and enter the designated car. The officers followed the vehicle as it drove the most direct route to the motel and stopped the car just *385short of its destination. Marijuana was discovered in an attaché case and cocaine was found in the defendant’s purse.
Acknowledging that it was a close case, the Court held that the anonymous tip coupled with the police corroboration established reasonable suspicion to support the investigatory stop.2 It found that as the caller indicated, a woman left the apartment building, got into the designated vehicle at a certain time and proceeded on a direct route to the predicted destination. The Court held that the independent corroboration by the police of significant aspects of the informer’s predictions imparted some degree of reliability to the other allegations made by the caller regarding the possession of drugs.
Although I question the Court’s reasoning in this regard,3 our Court is bound by it as there is no discernable difference between the facts of Alabama v. White and those of the instant cases.4 In Commonwealth v. Wimbush, an anonymous caller stated that a black man named Tony would be driving a white van with a specified vehicle registration number on Piney Ridge Road and that Tony would have cocaine and *386marijuana in his possession. Upon a check of the registration number given, the officers learned that the van was registered to Anthony Wimbush. The officers also discovered that Wimbush was suspected of drug activity in his county. That evening, officers observed a white van parked at a trailer located on Piney Ridge Road. The officers followed the vehicle as it left the trailer and stopped Wimbush at an intersection. Drugs were recovered from the vehicle and Wimbush was arrested.
In Commonwealth v. White, an anonymous 911 caller stated that a black male, wearing a white shirt and white shorts, would exit the King’s Residence of the New Kensington public housing complex with drugs in his possession and get onto a girl’s black bicycle. An officer drove to King’s Residence and observed a girl’s black bicycle outside the entrance to the complex. Shortly thereafter, the officer saw White, a black male dressed in a primarily white T-shirt and white shorts, exit the complex and get onto the girl’s bicycle. The officer stopped White, patted him down for weapons, and White fled. Another officer observed White and ordered him to stop and walk towards him. As White approached the officer, he dropped a bag containing sixteen individually wrapped bags of crack cocaine.
As in Alabama v. White, the anonymous callers in the instant cases informed the authorities of the identity of the defendant, where he would be located, approximately when the defendant would leave and the specific mode of transportation to his destination. Accordingly, I am compelled to conclude that Alabama v. White controls these cases and that no violation of the Fourth Amendment resulted from the investigatory stops of Appellants.

. In my concurring opinion in Goodwin, I concluded that Article I, Section 8 requires a broader standard than that applied by the United States Supreme Court in Alabama v. White in interpreting whether an anonymous tip is sufficient to establish reasonable suspicion to support an investigatory stop.

. The Court noted that every detail of the tip had not been verified at the time of the stop, such as the name of the woman leaving the building, the precise apartment from which she left, and the suggestion that White would be carrying a brown attaché case.

. Justice Stevens cogently noted in his dissenting opinion in Alabama v. White that one’s "prediction about somebody's time of departure and probable destination is anything but a reliable basis for assuming that the commuter is in possession of an illegal substance.” 496 U.S. at 333, 110 S.Ct. at 2417-2418. He further noted that under the Court's holding, "every citizen is subject to being seized and questioned by any officer who is prepared to testify that the warrantless top was based on an anonymous tip predicting whatever conduct the officer just observed.” Id. at 333, 110 S.Ct. at 2418.

. In reaching this conclusion, I have afforded the suppression court's finding of fact the deference described in Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996). In Ornelas, the United States Supreme Court held that the trial court's ultimate determination as to whether police officers had reasonable suspicion to stop an individual is subject to de novo review on appeal, rather than a deferential or abuse of discretion standard. The Court made clear, however, that reviewing courts "should take care both to review findings of historical fact only for clear error and to give due weight to inferences drawn from those facts by resident judges and local law enforcement officers.” Id. at 699, 116 S.Ct. at 1663.