Court Opinion

ID: 9766457
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:49:25.139783+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:33.399014
License: Public Domain

DEL SOLE, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the Majority’s conclusion that exigent circumstances existed in this case simply as a result of the manner in which a drug sale was conducted through a slot in a door. I also cannot accept the Majority’s alternate conclusion that if exigent circumstances did not originally exist, they arose when the police heard “noises” behind the door after they knocked and identified themselves. I believe *491that there is no evidence of any exigencies which would justify the absence of a warrant in this case.
The Majority writes that it was the particular “modus operandi” which created the exigent circumstances. They reason that the sale of drugs by means of a hole in a door frustrated police surveillance and made the police uncertain of the offender’s identity. I believe that neither the frustration of police surveillance or the need to identify a suspected criminal are circumstances which can be classified as exigent. Police work by its nature requires police to engage in surveillance which is often frustrated by those who seek not to be detected, and very often the police are seeking to identify an unknown perpetrator of a crime. Although in both circumstances police may need to enter a dwelling to aid them in apprehending a criminal, these facts alone do not, in my view, create exigent circumstances which would allow for such action despite the absence of a warrant.
Although the Majority provides a lengthy discussion of the state of the law concerning warrantless arrests, it does not cite to any case where exigent circumstances were held to exist in circumstances similar to those found in the instant case. Instead it refers to the factors contained in Commonwealth v. Williams, 483 Pa. 293, 298-299, 396 A.2d 1177,1179 1180 (1978). It holds that most of the factors enumerated in Williams were present: the sale of cocaine could be classified as a grave offense, the police had probable cause to believe the suspect committed a crime and could be found inside the premises, the need to make an arrest arose during the course of an investigation and the entry occurred in the evening. While I cannot dispute that some of the factors listed in Williams existed in this case, others did not. The police possessed no evidence which would cause them to believe that the suspect was armed and, more importantly in my view, there was no evidence that the suspect was likely to escape if not swiftly apprehended. Furthermore, some of the factors listed in favor of the police action would not have existed if it were not for the police conduct in this case. Although the need to arrest occurred in the evening and during the course *492of an investigation, it was the police who initiated these events by means of a controlled buy. While I do not suggest that the police conduct in this case was designed to “invent” exigent circumstances, neither should it provide the means to proceed without a warrant.
There are cases which in the past have involved circumstances similar to those found instantly and which support my position that exigent circumstances did not exist merely as a result of the manner in which this drug sale was conducted.
In Commonwealth v. Williams, 411 Pa.Super. 586, 602 A.2d 350 (1992), an undercover police officer made a controlled purchase of cocaine by approaching a woman seated on a porch, advising her that he needed “two” and handing her prerecorded money. Cocaine was passed from inside the home by the opening of a floorboard. As the officer walked away from the house, someone said as they passed him, “hello officer.” After advising his supervisor of the identification, a decision was made to immediately enter the premises and conduct a search. In viewing these circumstances under a claim that the police acted without a warrant and absent exigent circumstances, the court focused on the unplanned identification and concluded that the police action was proper. The court dismissed the appellant’s claim that there was no evidence that anyone in the house overheard the greeting, and stated:
By no means should we confine the showing of the exigent circumstances to the discrete event of the greeting; instead the problem was created when a person with apparent ability to blow Rone’s cover approached the house. It could logically be inferred, not that the initial greeting was heard, but that the observation would be repeated.
Id. at 592, 602 A.2d at 353.
Similarly in Commonwealth v. Peterson, 408 Pa.Super. 22, 596 A.2d 172 (1991), (plurality opinion) allocatur granted, 530 Pa. 641, 607 A.2d 252 (1992), unique facts involved in a drug sale purchase with an unseen seller were said to provide the police with exigent circumstances in which they could act *493without a warrant. Therein, police conducted a controlled buy at a “gate house” where the transaction was completed through a hole in a door. The money used in the controlled buy was treated with a dye, which after being handled would stain the person’s hands bright blue. The court noted that the discovery of the dye would alert the seller to the police presence and stated that “[t]he use of the dye made prompt police action imperative” because the seller was likely to destroy the evidence and/or flee the premises. Id. at 36, 596 A.2d at 179. The court also found that “even absent the blue dye investigative technique, the modus operandi of the ‘gate house’ operation made it unlikely that, had the police left to obtain a warrant, any remnants of the operation would have remained upon their return” Id. The suppression court in Peterson heard testimony that a gate-house operation involved a very fast turnover and that the police were unable to effectively conduct surveillance of the building while a warrant was being secured.
In a concurring opinion Judge Hoffman wrote that he agreed “with Judge Beck and the court below that the tactic employed in this case was reasonable only because of the unique nature of a ‘gate house’ ”. Id. at 50, 596 A.2d at 186. Judge Hoffman “frown[ed]” on the use by police of the blue dye to identify the person selling cocaine and labeled such practice “ ‘police created’ exigencies.” Id. In dissent, Judge Popovich wrote that he could “see no reason why the police did not procure a search warrant before effecting an entry into the gate house” and that the police “manufactured exigent circumstances to conduct a search.” Id. at 39, 596 A.2d at 180.
The facts of the instant case provide far less reason to justify a search absent a warrant than the facts found in Williams and Peterson. The previous cases involve situations where the suspects may have been, or were about to be alerted to police presence which would allow time for them to destroy evidence. In Peterson even this fact was not accepted by the majority of the panel as a reason to justify a warrant-less search because it was the police who placed a dye on the money which made immediate action necessary. However, *494the additional fact that the sale was made at a gate-house operation where no one lived and where the suspects were not expected to stay for any length of time, and where the police were unable to conduct surveillance without being detected, caused the majority of the panel to rule that the police action was reasonable. No similar exigencies can be found in this case. Here there is no testimony that those inside the premises were or were about to be alerted to police presence. In this case there is no testimony which would indicate that the police could not conduct a surveillance of the premises while a warrant was obtained. There is also no evidence that the sale was made at a “gate-house” where no one resided and the suspects would not be expected to stay. In contrast the testimony offered at the suppression hearing was that the sale was made through the door of an occupied apartment, that the police were able to observe the premises with binoculars without being seen and that it would have been difficult for anyone to exit the premises except by way of the front door. N.T. 9-24-90 at 45-46.
I find this case more in keeping with this court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Rispo, 338 Pa.Super. 225, 487 A.2d 937 (1985). In Rispo a police informant made a prearranged meeting with another in order to purchase methamphetamines. The seller advised the informant that he would have to make a call to obtain the drugs, and after doing so, the two left together and traveled to the appellant’s home. The seller entered the residence and obtained the drugs. After the seller returned and he and the informant drove off they were stopped by the police. Officers also went to the appellant’s home and approached the door, with guns drawn. The appellant’s ten-year-old daughter opened the door before anyone knocked and the police entered, arrested the appellant and seized the marked money used in the drug transaction. In ruling on a suppression motion the trial court held that exigent circumstances justified the failure of the agents to procure a search and/or arrest warrant prior to entered the premises. This court disagreed and stated:
*495If the agents had not approached the house but had maintained their surveillance until a warrant was obtained, there is no reason why the evidence sought to be seized would have been destroyed because the occupants of the house were unaware of the police surveillance. There is no evidence in the record to show that the occupants of the house had been tipped off or became suspicious after Christopher, a familiar family acquaintance, visited the home and spoke with appellant. We also find it unlikely that anyone would destroy $7,500 (or $6,300) in cash if he did not know that the bills were marked. Additionally the agents had no reason to believe that the occupants of the house were armed or were threatening anyone because the crime involved was not a violent one and there had been no indication of danger. The police could have kept the residence under covert surveillance in relative safety until a warrant was obtained.
Id. at 233-234, 487 A.2d at 941.
I find the rationale of Rispo equally applicable to the matter before us. Here too there is no indication that the police could not have waited until they obtained a warrant before entering the premises. There is nothing which made the circumstances before them exigent. Those inside the apartment were unaware of police presence, and they were unlikely to leave the building except by a front door which the police were observing through binoculars without being seen. In my view exigent circumstances would not have arisen unless some unforeseen event occurred during the planned controlled buy.
I certainly do not subscribe to the Majority’s alternative position that, even if exigent circumstances did not originally exist, they arose after the police knocked on the door and heard noises inside. The knock on the door was only preparatory to their decision to enter without a warrant and absent the authority to do the latter, I see no justification to permit the police entry. Law enforcement authorities cannot be allowed to knock on the door of every person who they have probable cause to believe has committed a crime and, when they hear “noise” inside, be allowed to make a warrantless *496entry. If the warrantless entry was not initially justifiable based upon probable cause and exigent circumstances, the police cannot be permitted to create the exigencies by knocking on the door and awaiting suspicious noises.
For the above reasons I would .rule that the suppression court erred in refusing to suppress evidence from the warrant-less entry made by the police. The absence of exigent circumstances in this case makes Appellant’s arrest illegal and requires, in my view, the suppression of the seized evidence.