Court Opinion

ID: 9699260
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:17:11.381684+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:48.259706
License: Public Domain

CERCONE, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the opinion expressed by the majority. The majority finds that the police officers’ first contact with appellant was a “mere encounter.” However, majority concludes that when the officers “maneuvered Appellant out of the line of traffic and continued to question him without reason, they went beyond the scope of a mere encoun*255ter and escalated the confrontation into an investigatory stop.” Opinion at 1233. I disagree. Based on the evidence presented at the suppression hearing, I cannot find that the mere encounter initiated by the three police officers escalated into an investigatory stop.
When reviewing a ruling of the suppression court, we must consider only the evidence of the prosecution and so much of the evidence of the defense as, fairly read in the context of the record as a whole, remains uncontradicted. Commonwealth v. Cortez, 507 Pa. 529, 532, 491 A.2d 111, 112 (1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 950, 106 S.Ct. 349, 88 L.Ed.2d 297 (1985). “Assuming that there is support in the record, we are bound by the facts as are found and we may reverse the suppression court only if the legal conclusions drawn from those facts are in error.” Id.
Not all interactions between the police and citizens involve seizure of persons. Only when the police have restrained the liberty of a person by show of authority or physical force may we conclude that a seizure has occurred. Michigan v. Chestemut, 486 U.S. 567, 573, 108 S.Ct. 1975, 1979, 100 L.Ed.2d 565 (1988). “An evaluation as to whether a seizure has occurred must be viewed in light of all the circumstances and whether a reasonable person would have believed he or she was free to leave.” Id. at 572, 108 S.Ct. at 1979 (emphasis added). As recognized by this court in In re Interest of Jermaine, 399 Pa.Super. 503, 582 A.2d 1058 (1990), allocatur denied, 530 Pa. 643, 607 A.2d 253 (1992), the purpose of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution as well as the purpose of Article 1 Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, is:
“to prevent arbitrary and oppressive interference by enforcement officials with the privacy and personal security of individuals.” United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 554, 96 S.Ct. 3074, 3081, 49 L.Ed.2d 1116 (1976). As long as the person to whom questions are put remains free to disregard the questions and walk away, there has been no intrusion upon that person’s liberty or privacy as would under the Constitution require some particularized and objective justification.... “But if the person refuses to *256answer and the police take additional steps ... to obtain an answer, then the Fourth Amendment imposes some minimal level of objective justification to validate the detention or seizure.”
In re Jermaine, supra, 399 Pa.Super. at 509-11, 582 A.2d at 1061.
This court has defined the various types of encounters involving police officers and suspects:
A police encounter with a suspect may properly be characterized as a mere encounter, an investigative detention, a custodial detention, or a formal arrest.... A ‘mere encounter’ (or request for information) need not be supported by any level of suspicion, but it carries no official compulsion to stop or to respond____ An ‘investigative detention’ must be supported by reasonable suspicion; it subjects the suspect to a stop and a period of detention, but does not involve such coercive conditions as to constitute the functional equivalent of an arrest____ A ‘custodial detention’ must be supported by probable cause; it is deemed to arise when the conditions and/or duration of an investigating detention become so coercive as to be the functional equivalent of arrest.... Formal arrest requires probable cause, and needs no further definition.
Commonwealth v. Lidge, 399 Pa.Super. 360, 367, 582 A.2d 383, 386 (1990), allocatur denied, 527 Pa. 598, 589 A.2d 689 (1991) (emphasis added) (quoting Commonwealth v. Douglass, 372 Pa.Super. 227, 238-39, 539 A.2d 412, 417-18 (1988) (citations omitted)). If a person is involved in a permissible police encounter, his consent, if voluntary, to search his or her luggage would allow the products of the search to be admissible against that person. Commonwealth v. Lidge, 399 Pa.Super. at 368-69, 582 A.2d at 387.
A close reading of the transcript of the suppression hearing establishes that appellant was not illegally detained and, as such, there was no seizure of his person in the present case. Keeping in mind our standard of review, the evidence establishes that the three officers approached appellant and identi*257fled themselves by name, asking appellant if he would mind speaking with them. N.T. 9/11/90 at 9. The officers informed appellant that he did not have to consent, but appellant responded that he wouldn’t mind speaking with them at all. Id. at 9, 68. The officers were not wearing uniforms, and no weapons were visible on their persons. Id. at 29, 30, 49, 63-64.
When asked, appellant indicated that he would not mind stepping out of the way of airport pedestrian traffic. Id. at 57. The three officers, followed by appellant, walked about ten to fifteen feet to a recessed area. Id. at 57, 67. Officer Korczyk described the area as follows:
Well, if you were walking down this hallway there would be a cut out section where — it would be 10 foot [sic] or so wide and 5 or 6 feet deep. It’s actually for the people that would be waiting for the elevator to stand so they wouldn’t be interfering with the normal flow of traffic in the airport.
[T]here are three walls, and it’s open on the one side. There’s a stairwell and an elevator in that indentation, all of which are exits.
Id. at 73-74. Appellant was not blocked into the area and was in full view of the public. Id. at 74. No officer touched or grabbed appellant. Id. at 29.
Appellant showed his ticket to the officers, who read and returned it. Id. at 39. When appellant offered to allow the officers to search his bag, the officers responded “You don’t have to let us look into the bag,” to which appellant stated “No, it’s okay, go ahead.” Id. at 10-11, 31. At that point, one of the officers asked if appellant would consent to a pat down search to which appellant stated “Sure, go ahead.” Id. at 52. The officers advised appellant that he had a right not to consent to the pat down search. Id. at 53. Beyond looking at the identification and ticket presented by appellant, the officers did not retain any of appellant’s belongings. Id. at 59.
I cannot agree with the majority’s conclusion that the evidence established that the mere encounter with appellant *258escalated into an investigative stop. The majority makes much of the fact that the officers “maneuvered” appellant out of the line of traffic and continued questioning him without reason. However, the majority overlooks the fact that the encounter had not yet begun when the officers and appellant stepped to the side of the corridor. The only question asked of appellant at that point in time was whether he would mind answering the officers’ questions. Appellant was fully informed that he did not have to give his consent.
Moreover, in reviewing cases involving drug interdiction at airports, we cannot disregard the realities of the airport environment or common sense. Common sense would dictate that during the Thanksgiving holiday season, standing in the middle of an airport corridor would create a hazard not only for appellant, but for other travelers as well. Stepping to the side to avoid being “trampled” does not, in itself, create a coercive condition thereby turning the encounter into an investigative stop. Especially where, as here, no questions had yet been posed to appellant.
The record clearly reveals that the three officers never indicated, in any manner, that appellant was not free to terminate the questioning and vacate the area. It is also clear from the testimony that it was appellant, not the police officers, who initiated the search of his bag. When an officer asked if appellant would consent to a pat-down search, the officer again informed appellant that he did not have to consent to the search. A review of the record discloses that the officers never acted in a threatening manner and in fact, told appellant at every stage of the encounter that he had the right to-withhold his consent. Based on this evidence, I must conclude that a reasonable person would have believed he was free to leave at any point during the encounter. The evidence does not establish that the encounter escalated into an investigatory stop.
Accordingly, I would affirm the judgment of sentence imposed by the trial court.