Court Opinion

ID: 9629410
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:42:16.797824+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:18.881138
License: Public Domain

RAKER, J.,
concurring:
I concur in the Court’s opinion and in the judgment. Like Judge Cathell, writing for the Court, and Judge Sonner, dissenting in the Court of Special Appeals, Pringle v. State, 141 Md.App. 292, 785 A.2d 790 (2001), I am convinced that the police lacked probable cause to arrest petitioner.1 I write separately to express my view that the dissent misconstrues the rationale of the majority opinion.
Contrary to the repeated assertion by the dissent that the majority erroneously blends the probable cause standard with the sufficiency of evidence standard, the Court is well aware of the basic and elemental difference in the quantum of proof to support probable cause and that which is necessary to support a conviction. The majority reiterates and applies the well-recognized standard for probable cause: “A finding of probable cause requires less evidence than is necessary to sustain a conviction, but more evidence than would merely arouse suspicion.” Maj. op. at 533-35 (quoting Collins v. State, 322 Md. 675, 680, 589 A.2d 479, 481 (1991)). Probable cause, a nontechnical common sense evaluation of the totality of the circumstances, nonetheless requires a reasonable ground for belief of guilt. In order to find probable cause for possession of a controlled dangerous substance, an arresting officer must have reasonable grounds to believe that a suspect knowingly exercised dominion or control over the substance. The majority merely looks to this Court’s jurisprudence as guidance to elucidate the concept of possession and its discussion of dominion or control. The standard for probable cause, on the one hand, and sufficiency of the evidence, on the other, remains unchanged.
*556Apparently, proximity to concealed drugs is sufficient for the dissent to find probable cause to arrest. See Diss. op. at 558, 559 n. 3. Although it may be sufficient under certain circumstances, the discovery of three men riding in a car in the early morning hours, with some rolled money in a closed glove box and drugs hidden from view in a back arm rest, without more, hardly constitutes probable cause to arrest a front seat passenger who has no possessory interest in the automobile.
I cannot improve upon Judge Sonner’s analysis in his dissent below:
Mindful of Garrison and its progeny, I believe the majority has stopped far short of considering whether Pringle, in any way, knowingly exercised dominion or control over the secreted contraband, and has resorted instead to “speculation or conjecture.” Although Pringle, like Folk, may have been within an arm’s reach of the drugs, in fact, to expose the drags, he would have had to stretch his body, maneuver around the back of his seat, and pull down the arm rest. And unlike Folk, Pringle was not sitting in a closed car that emanated the pungent, easily detectable smell of marijuana, which were critical facts in Judge Moylan’s analysis sustaining Folk’s conviction thirty years ago. Although the majority [of the Court of Special Appeals] attaches some significance to the large roll of currency found in the glove compartment, located in front of Pringle’s seat, cash, in and of itself, is innocuous and certainly less suspicious than the scales and cutting tools discounted by the Court of Appeals in Leach. Further, there was no showing whatsoever that Pringle, as a passenger in the car, had any connection to, or knowledge of, the money found within the glove compartment of someone else’s car.
Pringle v. State, 141 Md.App. at 316, 785 A.2d at 804 (internal citations omitted).
BATTAGLIA, J. in which WILNER and HARRELL, JJ„ join.
I respectfully dissent.
*557The majority’s holding that the police officers lacked probable cause to arrest the petitioner for possession of cocaine is based primarily upon an erroneous blending of the probable cause standard for an arrest and the sufficiency of evidence standard for a conviction. While the majority hastily acknowledges the differences between these standards, see maj. op. at fn. 9, it devotes most of its attention to citing and discussing legal authority for issues involving the standard of legal sufficiency and gives only brief consideration to two (more applicable, albeit distinguishable) opinions concerning the requisite probable cause for a valid warrantless arrest. For these reasons, and the reasons articulated herein, I respectfully dissent.
Arrests without warrants are constitutionally and statutorily permitted pursuant to Article 27, Section 594B of the Maryland Code as long as the officer has probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed and the officer reasonably believes the arrestee committed that crime.1 Determining whether probable cause exists to support a warrantless arrest requires a nontechnical, common sense evaluation of the totality of the circumstances in a given situation “in light of the facts and circumstances found to be credible by the trial judge.” See State v. Lemmon, 318 Md. 365, 379, 568 A.2d 48, 55 (1990). The police must have “specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those *558facts, reasonably warranted the intrusion.” Id. at 380, 568 A.2d at 56. It is this “totality of the circumstances” test under which a probable cause determination is properly reviewed.
In the present case, the information known to the officer at the time of the arrest was that three men were traveling in a vehicle (a Nissan Maxima) around 3:00am with a large stash of cash in the glove compartment and several plastic baggies of cocaine in the rear armrest. None of the men claimed ownership of the drugs or money, yet the location of the drugs and money in the Nissan Maxima would lead a reasonable officer in similar circumstances to believe that the three men had joint constructive possession over the contraband. In my view, this establishes probable cause for the arrest of each of the three individuals, including the petitioner.
What more would the majority require to justify an arrest? From the emphasis in its opinion, the majority would seemingly require police officers to consider whether the evidence gathered would be legally sufficient for a possession conviction prior to making the arrest. The majority asserts that “[wjhile the cases we have discussed above involve the sufficiency of the evidence, they, nonetheless, establish the law for determining some possession issues, even at the probable cause to arrest stage;” yet cites no authority for this proposition. Granted, the arresting officer must comprehend that which “possession of a controlled dangerous substance” entails.2 The officer should not, however, be required to base a determination to arrest on the ability of the State to meet the standard of legal sufficiency for a conviction; nor should the reviewing courts measure the propriety of the arrest by such a standard.3
*559Let me be clear on this point: I agree that the legal sufficiency of evidence in possession of narcotics cases requires the State to produce evidence of dominion or control over the narcotic allegedly possessed, and knowledge therewith, see Moye v. State, 369 Md. 2, 14, 796 A.2d 821, 828 (2002)(citing Dawkins v. State, 313 Md. 638, 649, 547 A.2d 1041, 1046 (1988)), beyond a reasonable doubt. I disagree, however, that the degree of evidence required for a conviction on the charge of possession of narcotics can be equated to that which is required of police officers when making probable cause determinations for warrantless arrests. Courts reviewing such determinations must not confuse or blend the two standards: probable cause for an arrest (a lower standard than legal sufficiency for a conviction) requires the reasonable belief that the person arrested had committed or was committing the felony crime of possession of narcotics. As we have oft explained, “probable cause is a nontechnical conception of a *560reasonable ground for belief of guilt, requiring less evidence for such belief than would justify a conviction, but more evidence than that which would arouse a mere suspicion.” Woods v. State, 315 Md. 591, 611, 556 A.2d 236, 246 (1989)(quoting Nilson v. State, 272 Md. 179, 184, 321 A.2d 301, 304 (1974)). A police officer who discovers: (at 3 a.m.) three passengers in a vehicle which contained several baggies of cocaine in the rear armrest and a large wad of money (arguably, “drug money”) in the front glove compartment could reasonably believe that those persons were exercising joint and constructive possession of the contraband in the vehicle, were engaging in drug trafficking, or conspiring to engage in drug trafficking, thus establishing probable cause for the arrest of each individual. Whether the State’s Attorney can produce sufficient evidence to demonstrate, beyond a reasonable doubt, actual or constructive dominion or control over the narcotics and knowledge therein to warrant a conviction is another question — one that is properly left to the prosecutor, initially, and the trier of fact, subsequently.4
Notwithstanding the majority’s inappropriate emphasis on cases involving the sufficiency of evidence, the majority does cite two cases which, while arguably more on-point, are factually distinguishable. In Livingston v. State, 317 Md. 408, 564 A.2d 414 (1989), a state trooper stopped a vehicle for speeding; when the officer spotted two marijuana seeds on the floor of the front passenger side, he arrested all three people in a vehicle. Because Livingston was sitting in the backseat of the vehicle and could not have reasonably manifested dominion or control over the two seeds located on the front passenger side floor, we held that the state trooper could not have probable cause to arrest Livingston for the crime. We stated specifical*561ly that “[iv]ithout more than the mere existence of two marijuana seeds located in the front of the car, we hold that the police officer lacked probable cause to arrest Livingston, a rear seat passenger, for possession of marijuana.” Id. at 416, 564 A.2d at 418 (emphasis added). In the case sub judice, the police officer had more evidence than “the mere existence of two marijuana seeds” — he had several baggies of cocaine in the rear armrest and a large wad of money in the glove compartment. It strains credulity to analogize the mere existence of two seeds on the floor of a vehicle to the secreted wad of cash and baggies of cocaine discovered in the present case. That two seeds on the front passenger floor of a vehicle is not enough to establish probable cause to arrest the back seat passenger does not, in my mind, equate to a lack of probable cause when a police officer discovers several baggies of cocaine and a large amount of cash.
Similarly, the facts which led to a finding of lack of probable cause in Collins v. State, 322 Md. 675, 589 A.2d 479 (1991), are markedly different than those before us today. In Collins, police officers observed five men standing approximately five feet from a Mustang in which a 35 mm film canister containing cocaine was ultimately found. Id. at 677, 589 A.2d at 480. The officers arrested all five men for possession of cocaine. Id. at 678, 589 A.2d at 480. We held that “[cjonsidering the totality of the circumstances, ... the mere presence of a closed film canister in a car found to contain cocaine [did not] support the requisite probable cause to arrest Collins as he stood outside of the vehicle. No testimony suggested that he arrived at the lot in the car, that he had even been in the vehicle, or that he knew the suspected cocaine was in the back seat of the car.” Id. at 682-83, 589 A.2d at 482 (emphasis added). In the present case, Pringle was not only physically in the car, he was seated in proximity to the cocaine and the money, items about which it was reasonable to believe that Pringle could have had knowledge of or control over. Evaluating the totality of the circumstances, with consideration of the facts as presented to the officer and rational inferences derived therefrom, I believe that probable cause existed to justify the officer’s warrantless arrest of Pringle.
*562Instead of focusing on the factual scenario presented to the Court, and more apposite, to the police officer, the majority chooses to jump to hypothetical extremes in an attempt to justify its operative heightening of the probable cause standard. In note 12, the majority erroneously asserts that if the Court were to adopt the position proffered by the appellant, then so long as some contraband was found, probable cause would exist, per se, and the police could arrest everyone, whether in a twelve-passenger van or movie theater. Such an assertion is specious in that the totality of the circumstances test, itself, precludes these sweeping generalizations; instead, it requires a review of the specific facts and circumstances presented to the officer at the scene of the purported crime, and if questioned, a ruling regarding the officer’s determination based upon these specific facts and circumstances. A court should not, and quite simply cannot, conjecture upon whether probable cause exists in factual situations not before it. Should I choose to entertain the majority’s hypotheticals, however, I would unequivocally assert that baggies of cocaine found in one area of a packed movie theater, without more, would not constitute probable cause to arrest everyone in the theater; I believe that the totality of circumstances test, itself, would preclude a finding of validity in such circumstances.
The majority’s attempt, however discrete, to incorporate a higher standard — that of the sufficiency of evidence-into the properly-applied probable cause standard will only serve to burden the law enforcement community. The majority apparently hopes to create prosecutors out of police officers by forcing law enforcement officers to guarantee the sufficiency of evidence for conviction on the crime of possession prior to initiating a viable arrest. Just as the standards are different, so are the duties of those who apply them. In the simplest of terms, police officers assist in enforcing the laws by arresting suspected violators, prosecutors assist in enforcing the laws by attempting to secure State-mandated punishment for these violations by presenting evidence which demonstrates, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the accused violated the law.
*563Certainly police officers must act in accordance with constitutional and statutory policies and procedures, but forcing officers to base their arrests of suspected wrong-doers upon whether a conviction may stand is unacceptable. See Woods, 315 Md. at 611, 556 A.2d at 246 (explaining that “whether an arrest for a felony without a warrant is constitutionally valid necessarily turns upon whether, at the moment the arrest was made, the arresting officer or the police acting as a team had probable cause to make it — whether at that moment the facts and circumstances within their knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information were sufficient to warrant a prudent man in believing that the accused had committed or was committing a felony”)(quoting Nilson, 272 Md. at 184, 321 A.2d at 304). Again, the decision to charge a wrong-doer is within the discretionary purview of the prosecutors, and the decision to convict, with the trier of fact. Sufficiency of evidence for conviction may have similar analytical markings with probable cause for arrest, but the two are not synonymous.
In Wilkes v. State, 364 Md. 554, 774 A.2d 420 (2001), we quoted the United States Supreme Court’s apt explanation of the conception of probable cause:
In dealing with probable cause, however, as the very name implies, we deal with probabilities. These are not technical; they are the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.
* * *
Because many situations which confront officers in the course of executing their duties are more or less ambiguous, room must be allowed for some mistakes on their part. But the mistakes must be those of reasonable men, acting on facts leading sensibly to their conclusions of probability. The rule of probable cause is a practical, nontechnical conception affording the best compromise that has been found for accommodating ... often opposing interests. Re*564quiring more would unduly hamper law enforcement. To allow less would be to leave law-abiding citizens at the mercy of the officers’ whim or caprice.
Id. at 584-85, 774 A.2d at 438 (quoting Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 175-76, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 1310-11, 93 L.Ed. 1879, 1890-91 (1949)); accord Doering v. State, 313 Md. 384, 403, 545 A.2d 1281, 1290-91 (1988). Again, I fear that the majority’s holding today will, in effect, “unduly hamper law enforcement” in this State. Probable cause, a concept of probabilities, requires only that “the facts and circumstances within the officer’s knowledge ... justify the belief of a reasonable person that a crime has been or is being committed” and that the person arrested participated in the crime. Johnson v. State, 356 Md. 498, 504, 740 A.2d 615, 618 (1999). The practical .considerations on which the officer acted in the case sub judice were reasonable in light of the evidence discovered. I would affirm the holding of the Court of Special Appeals; the circumstances were sufficient to constitute probable cause to arrest the appellant.
Given that I would find sufficient probable cause to arrest the appellant, the issue of attenuation would be immaterial. The majority’s conclusion regarding lack of probable cause, however, provides the occasion to address the issue of attenuation, in view of the fact the petitioner confessed. The occasion to address the attenuation issue must be exercised by the trial court in the first instance, rather than an appellate court, because questions of this nature are necessarily “fact-specific.” See United States v. Burton, 288 F.3d 91, 100 (3d Cir.2002).
I would be remiss, however, if I neglected to comment upon the flawed attenuation analysis proffered by the majority in this case. First, while I agree that “an individual’s waiver of Miranda warnings taken alone would be insufficient to purge the taint of the original unlawful conduct under a Fourth Amendment analysis,” a person’s voluntary conduct and demonstration of free will may “purge the primary taint” associated with the unlawful conduct. See Miles v. State, 365 Md. 488, 526, 781 A.2d 787, 809 (2001)(quoting Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 602, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2261, 45 L.Ed.2d 416, 426 (1975)). *565As we noted in Miles, the Supreme Court refined the attenuation doctrine to include an exploration into the voluntariness of an accused’s conduct. See id. at 523, 781 A.2d at 807 (citing United States v. Ceccolini, 435 U.S. 268, 276-77, 98 S.Ct. 1054, 1060, 55 L.Ed.2d 268, 277 (1978)). Substantively speaking, I agree with the analysis of the Court of Special Appeals concerning the voluntariness of the appellant’s confession and the lack of coercion on the part of the police officers. The statement by the police on which the majority solely relies in finding “coercion” is “you are all going to get arrested.”5 As the Court of Special Appeals correctly stated, “[tjhis statement flowed naturally from the attendant circumstances of finding three suspects within the proximity of the illegal drugs.” Pringle, 141 Md.App. at 308, 785 A.2d at 799. Informing the suspects that they were going to be arrested is not a statement that would be considered exploitative, threatening, or made in an attempt to induce a confession; it was a statement of fact concerning the actions the officer was about to take. With respect to the subsequent confession, the majority failed to consider the voluntariness of the petitioner’s conduct, a factor not only independently mandated by the Ceccolini decision, but one that may be construed as an intervening factor under Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 603-04, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2261-62, 45 L.Ed.2d 416, 427 (1975).6 In*566stead, it simply excused the confession as a “product of his illegal arrest and the ... continuing coercion arising from that illegal arrest” without any consideration or deliberation upon the voluntariness of petitioner’s conduct. See, maj. op. at 554.
For the aforementioned reasons, I respectfully dissent.
Judge WILNER and Judge HARRELL have authorized me to state that they join in the views expressed herein.

. I agree also with the Court's conclusion that the confession was the product of an illegal arrest. See Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 603-04, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2261-62, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975).

. Maryland Code (1957, 1996 Repl.Vol.), Article 27, Section 59413, now found at Section 2-202 of (he Criminal Procedure Article, states:
(a) Arrest for crime committed in presence, of police officer. — A police officer may arrest without a warrant any person who commits or attempts to commit any felony or misdemeanor in the presence of, or within the view of, such police officer.
(b) Arrest for crime apparently committed in presence of officer. — A police officer who has probable cause to believe that a felony or misdemeanor is being committed in the officer's presence or within the officer's view, may arrest without a warrant any person whom the police officer may reasonably believe to have committed the crime.
(c) Arrest from crime committed generally. — A police officer may arrest a person without a warrant if the officer has probable cause to believe that a felony has been committed or attempted and that such person has committed or attempted to commit a felony whether or not in the officer's presence or view.

. Possession is defined as “the exercise of actual or constructive dominion or control over a thing by one or more persons.” See Maryland Code (1957, 1996 Repl.Vol., 2001 Supp.), Article 27, section 277(s).

. The majority opinion discusses several cases involving the standard of legal sufficiency for possession. See maj. op. pp. 533-544. (discussing, in order, Garrison v. State, 212 Md. 123, 321 A.2d 767 (1974), which held that the State did not meet the standard of legal sufficiency for *559possession of narcotics because there was no evidence to demonstrate actual or constructive dominion or control over ihe drugs; State v. Leach, 296 Md. 591, 463 A.2d 872 (1983), which held that there existed insufficient evidence to establish constructive possession over the narcotics; Dawkins v. State, 313 Md. 638, 547 A.2d 1041 (1988), where the Court held that knowledge is an element of possession of narcotics which the State must establish and the court must so instruct the jury; White v. State, 363 Md. 150, 767 A.2d 855 (2001), which held that there existed insufficient evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the petitioner had knowledge of the presence of cocaine hidden in driver's trunk; and Taylor v. State, 346 Md. 452, 697 A.2d 462 (1997), which held that insufficient evidence existed to establish possession of marijuana because there was no evidence that petitioner exercised dominion or control over marijuana or had knowledge of its presence).
With respect to the legal sufficiency of evidence, it is true that "[mjere proximity to the drug, mere presence on the property where it is located, or mere association, without more, with the person who does control the drug or property on which it is found, is insufficient to support a finding of possession." Moye, v. State, 369 Md. 2, 16, 796 A.2d 821, 829 (2002)(emphasis added)(quoting Taylor v. State, 346 Md. 452, 460, 697 A.2d 462, 466 (1997)). "There must be additional proof of knowledge and control to sustain a conviction for possession.” Taylor, 346 Md. at 460, 697 A.2d at 466. Depending on the surrounding circumstances, proximity to the drug or association with the persons or property on which illegal narcotics are found, however, may be sufficient to support probable cause to justify a warrantless arrest.

. Article 10, Section 34 of the Maryland Code grants prosecutors the authority to “prosecute ... all cases in which the State may be interested.” Md.Code (1957, Repl.Vol.), Art. 10, § 34. Maryland State’s Attorneys are entrusted with broad discretion to “institute and prosecute criminal causes.” Beverly v. State, 349 Md. 106, 121, 707 A.2d 91, 98 (1998)(quoting Brack v. Wells, 184 Md. 86, 90, 40 A.2d 319, 321 (1944)).

. The majority fails 1o acknowledge that there was a factual dispute regarding the subsequent part of the alleged statement made by the police officer. The petitioner alleges that prior to the arrests, the officer indicated that if one person would confess the others would be let go. The officer denies making such a statement. Regardless of whether the statement occurred, the Court of Special Appeals correctly points out that it could not have had the inducing or coercing effect, that the petitioner alleges because the petitioner did not confess in response to this statement in order to ensure that his friends would not be arrested. All three men were, in fact, taken into custody; appellant’s confession occurred more than two hours after the arrest. Appellant’s allegation “that he confessed so that his friends would go free is inconsistent with the sequence of events.” Pringle v. State, 141 Md. App. 292, 309, 785 A.2d 790, 800 (2001).

. I further disagree with the majority's application oi the temporal factor of attenuation analysis and the weight it affords that factor *566thereto. As we stated in Miles, there exists no specific length of time by which the taint of unlawful conduct will be purged. Miles, 365 Md. at 527-28, 781 A.2d at 810. The majority, on the one hand, acknowledges that “a lengthy detention can be used to exploit an illegal arrest at least as easily as a brief detention”and thus, the temporal factor is "ambiguous,” see maj. op. at 550 (quoting Ferguson v. State, 301 Md. 542, 550, 483 A.2d 1255, 1259 (1984)); on the other hand, however, the majority seems to indicate that if "[t]he time between the illegal arrest and the confession is the natural time that likely would have lapsed in such a situation,” then the temporal factor should automatically weigh against the State. See maj. op. at 550. I disagree with any implication that the "natural lapse of time” should be a decisive standard in evaluating attenuation. The temporal factor cannot be considered in a vacuum; surrounding facts and circumstances must also be considered.