Com. v. Prengle

• Decision Date: 30 November 1981
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, v. Robert PRENGLE, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 992

437 A.2d 992

293 Pa.Super. 64

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, v. Robert PRENGLE, Appellant.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted Dec. 5, 1980.

Filed Nov. 30, 1981.

Elaine DeMasse, Asst. Public Defender, Philadelphia, for appellant.

Gaele McLaughlin Barthold, Asst. Dist. Atty., Philadelphia, for Commonwealth, appellee.

Before BROSKY, JOHNSON and POPOVICH, JJ.

POPOVICH, Judge:

Appellant, Robert Prengle, also referred to as Robert Pringle, was arrested on March 12, 1979, and charged with burglary, theft, receiving stolen property, criminal trespass and possessing an instrument of crime. A timely filed pre-trial motion to suppress evidence was heard and denied. Immediately thereafter, appellant was found guilty in a non-jury trial of burglary ¹ only. Post-verdict motions were denied and appellant was sentenced to serve an eighteen month to three year term of imprisonment. This direct appeal followed.

Appellant's sole contention on appeal is that the evidence obtained as a result of his allegedly illegal arrest was impermissibly admitted into evidence. We disagree and affirm the judgment of sentence.

The facts, which are not in dispute, are as follows:

On March 12, 1979, at approximately 5:50 A.M., Officer Randy Jaudon of the Philadelphia Police Force received a J Band ² radio bulletin advising him that a burglary had been committed at 1020 Spring Garden Street. The bulletin further advised the officer that an unknown male would be driving a truck "loaded with tires and bearing the logo 'Center City Tire Company.' " Officer Jaudon immediately proceeded to an exit ramp on the Expressway on a "hunch" that, based on the location of Center City Tire Company, the driver probably would use the expressway and exit at that ramp. Within five minutes of his arrival at the exit ramp, Officer Jaudon stopped an individual, later identified as appellant, driving a truck loaded with tires, and bearing the logo "Center City Tire Company." The officer approached the truck, asked appellant to remove himself from the cab, conducted a frisk of appellant's outer clothing for the purpose of discovering dangerous instrumentalities, and asked appellant for identification. After failing to respond to Officer Jaudon's request to produce a driver's license and an owner's card, appellant was placed under arrest. Officer Jaudon then searched the truck and recovered forty-three tires and two boxes filled with cigarettes, peanuts, and crackers. Appellant was found to be in possession of a screwdriver and "what appeared to be a switch with a key."

Appellant contends on appeal that his arrest was unlawful. More specifically, appellant argues that because the Commonwealth failed to satisfy its burden of demonstrating either (1) probable cause for the issuance of the bulletin which prompted the arrest or (2) that the arresting officer independently possessed reasonable suspicion to stop appellant, all physical evidence should have been suppressed as the fruit of an unlawful arrest. ³

For the following reasons, we reject appellant's contention.

To begin with, the United States Supreme Court has said that:

"(t)he Fourth amendment does not require a policeman who lacks the precise level of information necessary for probable cause to arrest to simply shrug his shoulders and allow a crime to occur or a criminal to escape. On the contrary...it may be the essence of good police work to adopt an intermediate response.... A brief stop of a suspicious individual, in order to determine his identity or to maintain the status quo momentarily while obtaining more information may be most reasonable in light of the facts known to the officer at the time." Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 146, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 1923, 32 L.Ed.2d 612, 617 (1972) (citations omitted) (emphasis added).

Therefore, even in the absence of probable cause, an individual may be stopped and briefly detained provided the investigating officer can point to specific and articulable facts which in conjunction with rational inferences deriving therefrom reasonably warrant the intrusion. Adams v. Williams, supra.

Moreover, this court has addressed the reason why a brief detention may be permissible under circumstances substantially similar to those of the instant appeal, stating:

"(w)e should permit our police in the early stage of their investigative work (before a warrant has been issued for specific individuals), to adopt the "intermediate response" mentioned in Adams-to rely on radio information for the purpose of detaining individuals suspected of criminal activity, at least long enough to determine identity. If such a stop can be shown to actually have been based on probable cause, or if the stop discloses new information, then the police should be permitted to proceed in a reasonable manner, detaining for further investigation, or, where appropriate, making an arrest." Commonwealth v. Benson, 239 Pa.Super. 100, 107, 361 A.2d 695, 698 (1976), aff'd per curiam, 482 Pa. 1, 393 A.2d 348 (1978) (emphasis added).

Hence, we recognize that a police officer may rely upon information which is broadcast over a police radio in order to justify an investigatory stop and subsequent arrest where the Commonwealth can establish either (1) that probable cause existed for issuing the bulletin or (2) that new information disclosed during the stop gave rise to probable cause for arrest.

Instantly, the information supplied to Officer Jaudon over the J Band was that: (1) a burglary had been committed at 1020 Spring Garden Street; ⁴ (2) the perpetrator would be driving a truck...