Court Opinion

ID: 9761266
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:36:47.597455+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:21.597637
License: Public Domain

POPOVICH, Judge,
dissenting:
The majority holds that a tip from an unidentified informant indicating a criminal suspect’s whereabouts is sufficient to allow police officers to enter the home of a third party to effectuate an arrest without first knocking and announcing their presence. Because this holding disregards the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures, I must dissent.
In Commonwealth v. Stanley, 498 Pa. 326, 446 A.2d 583 (1982), our Supreme Court was faced with the issue of whether a defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights are violated when police enter a third party’s apartment to effectuate an arrest and, in so doing, seize a revolver belonging to the defendant.
The facts of Stanley were stated by the Court as follows:
“On October 1, 1975, while incarcerated following a murder conviction for the shooting death of one Timothy Shinn, appellant escaped from the Philadelphia General Hospital Detention Unit. When police discovered appellant was gone, they broadcast an hourly ‘wanted’ message over the police radio, informed the State Crime Information Center, and widely disseminated appellant’s ‘mug shot’.. An arrest warrant was issued the next day.
While appellant was at large, Carmen Sperduto observed appellant with Jacqueline Keim. Ms. Keim told Mr. Sperduto that appellant was a fugitive and was staying at her apartment on West Roosevelt Boulevard in *111Philadelphia. (Appellant was heard to say that ‘he needed a place to hole up ... until things got cooled off.’) Mr. Sperduto also observed appellant drop and retrieve a small caliber revolver. On October 3, after seeing appellant’s picture in the paper, Mr. Sperduto called the police and stated that he ‘might know’ appellant’s whereabouts.
About an hour later, Mr. Sperduto conducted the police to Ms. Keim’s apartment. The police called for reinforcements, but no search warrant was obtained. When reinforcements arrived, an officer knocked and announced ‘Police’. Thirty to sixty seconds elapsed with no response. The police then forced open the door and proceeded through the living room and dining room. In a small back bedroom, the police observed what they first thought to be a bundle of clothing beneath a small portable crib. Upon closer examination, the police discerned the figure of a man (appellant) and apprehended the appellant. Simultaneously, the police seized a fully loaded revolver from the top of a small bureau next to the crib, within appellant’s reach.”
Stanley, supra, 498 Pa. at 331, 332, 446 A.2d at 585, 586. In affirming judgment of sentence, this Court held that because the police entered the third party’s apartment not to search the premises but to make an arrest, Stanley did not have standing to attack the lawfulness of the entry to arrest him. Commonwealth v. Stanley, 265 Pa.Super. 194, 401 A.2d 1166 (1979). The Supreme Court chose not to dispose of the issue on the basis of standing and, instead, ruled that the entry was legal. The high Court held that an arrest warrant and “reason to believe” that the subject was in the third party’s home were all that was necessary to enter. The Court also held, however, that absent exigent circumstances, police must announce both their authority and purpose before forcible entry. The Court found that the information supplied by Mr. Sperduto, who led officers to the apartment in which Stanley was hiding, supplied police with sufficient reason to believe that the fugitive was in the apartment. The officers knocked and announced *112“Police”, but failed to announce their purpose. But, because there was no response for up to sixty seconds, and because the suspect was reported to be armed and dangerous, the Court held that by announcing their identity and waiting, the police did more than was required by the Fourth Amendment and were,.therefore, excused from announcing their purpose. Commonwealth v. Stanley, 498 Pa. 326, 333, 334, 446 A.2d 583, 587.
Although the police in the instant case were not armed with an arrest warrant, I agree with the opinion of the majority that the eye-witness identification of appellant only 20 minutes prior to receiving a tip as to appellant’s whereabouts provided probable cause for the arrest and obviated the need for an arrest warrant. However, the fact that police had probable cause to arrest appellant does not excuse the procedures used to effectuate that arrest. Although the majority is correct in citing Stanley, supra, for the proposition that one’s expectation of privacy is not as high in a third party’s home as it is in one’s own home, Stanley does not hold that an armed suspect in a third party’s home has absolutely no expectation of privacy.
Detective Gallagher’s testimony from the suppression hearing describes the events leading up to the arrest. Detective Gallagher learned from another police officer, who did not testify, that an informant had seen appellant in this residence, that he was armed, and that he was going to leave town that evening. (N.T. November 1, 1979, pp. 25, 26). At that point, Detective Gallagher waited for a stakeout team and then proceeded up the street towards the residence. When they were about ten houses away, someone thrust his head out of the door of the residence and then quickly went back inside the house. At least four officers, including Detective Gallagher, walked inside. (N.T. November 1, 1979, pp. 28, 40). Detective Gallagher testified that he did not hear the officers who preceded him through the door knock or announce that they were police. (N.T. November 1, 1979, p. 39).
*113Of the exigent circumstances listed by the majority in excusing the failure of the police to knock and announce, only one, that appellant was armed, can be attributed to circumstances other than the information obtained from the unidentified informant. Although the record indicates that someone looked out of the door of the residence when the police were ten houses away, the majority’s conclusion that this person observed the police before ducking back inside is not supported by the testimony presented at the suppression hearing. (See N.T. November 1, 1979, pp. 28, 37). The majority also concludes that appellant engaged in furtive conduct similar to that which existed in Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726 (1963), where police officers were excused from demanding admittance and explaining their purpose because, in addition to the officers’ belief that narcotics on the premises could be quickly and easily destroyed, the defendant had, immediately after purchasing narcotics earlier that evening, eluded police who were following him in a car by making a U-turn in the middle of a block. Here, appellant’s furtive conduct consisted only of leaving the scene of the crime and seeking refuge in the Napa Street residence. No evidence of a chase or otherwise eluding police was presented.
In Commonwealth v. Riccardi, 220 Pa.Super. 72, 283 A.2d 719 (1971), we stated:
“It is settled in this Commonwealth that the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures requires that a police officer give notice of his identity and announce his purpose before forcibly entering upon private premises to conduct a search or make an arrest. Commonwealth v. DeMichel, 442 Pa. 553, 277 A.2d 159 (1971). ‘The purpose of this announcement rule is that “ * * * the dignity and privacy protected by the fourth amendment demand a certain propriety on the part of policemen even after they have been authorized to invade an individual’s privacy. Regardless of how great the probable cause to believe a man guilty of a crime, he must be given a reasonable opportunity *114to surrender his privacy voluntarily.” ’ ” (Citations omitted) (Emphasis supplied)
Id., 220 Pa.Superior at 74, 283 A.2d at 721.
The majority in the instant case is condoning the unannounced entry of four police officers into a private residence based on the testimony of one police officer that another police officer had received a tip from an unknown informant that appellant could be found at this residence. The hearsay on hearsay testimony of an unidentified informant’s tip is, in this writer’s mind, clearly inadequate to create the exigent circumstances required before police can make an unannounced entry into a private residence.
The majority finds the record unclear as to whether the door of the Napa Street residence was ajar or closed when the police entered. The lower court, in its findings of fact, found that the police “entered an open or unlocked door” before proceeding, to the second floor where they apprehended appellant. While being cross-examined at the suppression hearing, Detective Gallagher indicated that he was sure the door was unlocked but was not sure if the door was completely shut. However, in referring to the first police officer who entered, Detective Gallagher stated, “I saw him turn the handle and go in.” (N.T. November 1, 1979, p. 39). In passing on the federal knock and announce rule in Sabbath v. United States, 391 U.S. 585, 88 S.Ct. 1755, 20 L.Ed.2d 828 (1968), the Court stated: “An unannounced intrusion into a dwelling ... is no less an unannounced intrusion whether officers break down a door, force open a chain lock on a partially open door, open a locked door by use of a pass key, or ... open a closed but unlocked door.” (Footnote omitted) Id. at 590, 88 S.Ct. at 1758. In the case sub judice, the evidence shows that the police turned the door handle before pushing the door open and going inside. Because there is no evidence to indicate that the door was open, the officer’s failure to knock and announce cannot be excused on this point.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Stanley, supra, did not announce a rule entitling police to enter anyone’s home *115unannounced without more than the excuse that they were tipped off by some unknown person that an armed felon was hiding there. Stanley excused the police from announcing their purpose after they had been led to the third party’s apartment by an identified informant and after they had knocked and announced their presence. The Supreme Court in Stanley, supra, stated: “[A]ll Fourth Amendment requirements are tempered by considerations of reasonableness under the circumstances ____ The purpose of the ‘knock and announce’ requirement is to permit peaceful surrender of the premises before forcible intrusion.” (Citations omitted). Id. 498 Pa. at 334, 446 A.2d at 587. I realize that the Fourth Amendment cannot be interpreted to imperil law enforcement officers. Id. However, when “reason to believe” is based on a tip such as the one in this case, I would interpret the United States Constitution as requiring the police to announce their presence from a point of safety rather than allowing them to enter through the front door unannounced.
I, therefore, dissent.