Court Opinion

ID: 9695328
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:15:41.055607+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:10.842496
License: Public Domain

VAN der VOORT, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I concur in the decision of the Majority to remand this appeal to the court below for the purpose of continuing the suppression hearing. However, I dissent from that part of the opinion which holds that the Commonwealth has the burden of proving the validity of the search warrant before the defendant may be called upon to show that some of the recitals in the affidavit are untrue.
A defendant in a criminal case is given the right to file a motion to suppress all or part of the evidence. Pa.R.Crim.P. 306 and 323. A pertinent part of said Rule 306 provides with respect to the motion as follows:
“. . . It shall state specifically the grounds upon which each type of relief requested therein is based, setting forth for each type of relief requested the facts in consecutively numbered paragraphs, and shall specify each such type of relief requested.”
The Rule provides that specificity is required of the motions embodied in an omnibus pretrial motion. Unless the *234defendant’s motion specifies what part of the affidavit is untrue, no hearing should be required. When a defendant files a proper motion making “a substantial preliminary showing that a false statement knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth, was included by the affiant in the warrant affidavit, and if the allegedly false statement is necessary to the finding of probable cause, the Fourth Amendment requires that a hearing be held at the defendant’s request.” Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, at page 155-56, 98 S.Ct. 2674, at page 2676, 57 L.Ed.2d 667, at page 672 (1979).
When the defendant has made a proper motion to suppress “[T]he Commonwealth shall have the burden of going forward with the evidence and of establishing that the challenged evidence was not obtained in violation of the defendant’s rights....” Pa.R.Crim.P. 323(h). (Emphasis supplied).
The Commonwealth is limited in its proof by Pa.R.Crim.P. 2003(a) and (b). Said Rule provides as follows:
(a) No search warrant shall issue but upon probable cause supported by one or more affidavits sworn to before the issuing authority. The issuing authority, in determining whether probable cause has been established, may not consider any evidence outside the affidavits.
(b) At any hearing on a motion for the return or suppression of evidence, or for suppression of the fruits of evidence, obtained pursuant to a search warrant, no evidence shall be admissible to establish probable cause other than the affidavits provided for in paragraph (a).
The Commonwealth is strictly limited to the search warrant and the affidavit accompanying it. There is a presumption as to the validity of the affidavit and warrant, Franks v. Delaware, supra, at 438 U.S. at 171, 98 S.Ct. at 2684, 57 L.Ed.2d at 682. These documents constitute a prima facie showing of such validity.1 When the Common*235wealth has made its prima facie showing the defendant is then in my judgment privileged to challenge the validity of the warrants by presenting evidence to show the untruthfulness of some or any of the allegations in the affidavit. He may present his own witnesses or call the affiant for cross examination. He is given the power of subpoena for the purpose of bringing witnesses or the affiant into court.
In the instant case, the motion (application) to suppress contained nothing but a sparce bald conclusion as to the invalidity of the search warrant affidavit. In the continued hearing which will take place the defendant should be given an opportunity to amend his Motion to Suppress, to specify more definitely the parts of the affidavit which he challenges and the basis for such challenge. If he does this then in my judgment a suppression hearing should be required.

. In Commonwealth v. Ryan, 268 Pa.Superior Ct. 259 at 266, 407 A.2d 1345, 1348 (1979) we held that “... A bald statement that the *235Commonwealth failed to show probable cause, without more, could be met by the introduction of the warrant and the affidavit.”