Court Opinion

ID: 9756126
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:08:42.322454+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:14.817517
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully but vigorously dissent. When Joseph Stanley Morgan invited the person or persons knocking at his door to “come in,” without requiring any identification from his visitors, he consented to their entry. Consequently, he cannot be heard to complain that his visitors were law enforcement personnel armed with a search warrant, who stated their name and purpose only after having stepped into his home. Because the search thereafter made was reasonably and legally conducted, I would reverse the order *473suppressing the methamphetamine seized during the search.
The facts are not in dispute. Armed with a valid search warrant, Detectives James Di Romualdo and Glen Green-wait approached the front door of Morgan’s home at or about noon on October 12, 1984. The inner door was open. Therefore, the detectives knocked on the screen door. Morgan, in response to the knock, asked: “Who is it?” To this, Detective Di Romualdo responded, “Joe,” this being Morgan’s first name. Morgan then instructed his visitors to “come in.” Thereupon, the detectives stepped into the house and immediately announced their identity and purpose.
This is not a case in which the police used a ruse to gain entrance to a suspect’s home. When, in response to their knock, the police heard a voice from within, they inquired whether it belonged to “Joe.” When they did so, they were not attempting to mislead Morgan or to conceal their identity. They did no more than to call out to the person who had spoken to them from the interior of the home. The record does not suggest that Morgan believed he was inviting someone named “Joe” to enter when he said “come in.” Rather, the evidence suggests that Morgan, without knowing exactly who was at the door, invited that person or persons to come into his home.
It has been said that consent must turn not on the state of mind of the officer but on the state of mind of the citizen. Commonwealth v. Poteete, 274 Pa.Super. 490, 498, 418 A.2d 513, 517 (1980). In this case, however, the state of mind of Morgan was clear. He extended an open invitation to his visitor or visitors to enter his residence. It is immaterial under these circumstances that he did not know his visitors to be law enforcement agents. Appellant voluntarily surrendered any expectation of privacy which he would otherwise have had. Having invited the police to “come in,” it cannot be said that their entry was unlawful. Cf. Commonwealth v. Lassiter, 457 Pa. 582, 321 A.2d 902 (1974) (owner’s invitation to officer to enter home legitimized officer’s entry such that subsequent seizure of evidence in *474plain view was proper); Commonwealth v. Gockley, 411 Pa. 437,192 A.2d 693 (1963) (consent to warrantless search); Commonwealth v. Hartford, 313 Pa.Super. 213, 459 A.2d 815 (1983) (same).
The majority holds that the contraband seized by the police must be suppressed because the police, in apparent violation of Pa.R.Crim.P. 2007, announced their identity and purpose after they had stepped into the residence rather than from the other side of the screen door. In my judgment, this holding exalts form over substance. The police, having been invited into Morgan's home, stepped in and immediately announced their purpose. This was not an unreasonable intrusion of his place of abode; it did not violate any expectation of privacy which Morgan had; and it did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights. If there were a technical violation of Pa.R.Crim.P. 2007, the violation did not assume constitutional dimensions, was not accompanied by bad faith and did not prejudice Morgan. The technical violation, if any, did not require suppression of the fruits of the search which in all other respects was lawfully conducted pursuant to a valid search warrant. See: Commonwealth v. Mason, 507 Pa. 396, 490 A.2d 421 (1985).
For these reasons, I dissent. I would reverse the suppression order and remand for further proceedings.