Com. v. Sadvari
| Decision Date | 14 December 1998 |
| Citation | 723 A.2d 1044 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Stephen S. SADVARI, Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Dennis Woody, Media, for appellant.
Louis G. Stesis, Asst. District Atty., Media, for Com., appellee.
Before FORD ELLIOTT, J., STEVENS, J., and CERCONE, President Judge Emeritus.
CERCONE, President Judge Emeritus:
This is a direct appeal from the judgment of sentence entered by the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County. We affirm.
A jury convicted Appellant of driving under the influence1 and driving with a blood alcohol content of .10% or greater.2 The Trial Court subsequently sentenced Appellant to a term of imprisonment of not less than thirty (30) days nor more than twenty-three (23) months. Thereafter, Appellant filed the instant timely appeal challenging the Trial Court's denial of his pre-trial motion to suppress evidence.
The Trial Court concisely summarized the facts underlying this appeal as follows:
On October 31, 1996, Pennsylvania State Trooper Chris J. Damico was on duty in a marked police vehicle patrolling Route 202 in Delaware County north of the Pennsylvania-Delaware state line. As he was traveling southbound at approximately 45-50 miles per hour, he noticed a car approaching from the rear. The Defendant was the operator and sole occupant of the approaching vehicle. Apparently, the Defendant had unwittingly approached Trooper Damico's patrol car from behind while traveling at a high rate of speed. After the Defendant realized his folly, he slammed on his brakes alongside the patrol car but nevertheless continued to pass Trooper Damico in the right lane. The officer continued to follow the Defendant who was traveling approximately 60 miles per hour in a posted 45 miles per hour speed zone. Defendant's violation of the speed limit and driving in an unsafe manner occurred in Pennsylvania. By the time he was "pulled over" the Defendant and the police car had crossed the state line. While stopped in Delaware Defendant rolled down his car window. The Trooper was greeted by the strong odor of alcohol. Defendant also exhibited slurred speech and bloodshot eyes. The driver offered that he had some drinks after work. The Trooper asked the Defendant to alight his vehicle. The officer then administered two separate types of field sobriety tests. Defendant failed three times to stand on one-leg and count. He also was unable to balance himself while walking heel to toe. The State Trooper placed the Defendant under arrest for driving while intoxicated. The Trooper then delivered the Defendant to Riddle Memorial Hospital where three vials of blood were withdrawn for blood alcohol analysis. The results indicated that Defendant's blood alcohol content was.16%; an amount exceeding the legal limit. Defendant was transported to the District Justice in Concordville, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. There the District Justice determined that sufficient probable cause existed to justify the arrest. At the time of the suppression hearing, no evidence was presented which related to or suggested a pattern of out-of-state arrests in Delaware by Pennsylvania State Troopers.
Trial Court Opinion, 2/27/98, at 2-3.
Appellant raises one issue for our review:
Whether the trial court erred in refusing to suppress evidence obtained as the result of an illegal arrest, in the State of Delaware, of Stephen Sadvari, a citizen of the State of Delaware, by Pennsylvania State Troopers, where the applicable provisions of the Pennsylvania Administrative Code do not authorize the arrest and where the troopers failed to bring Mr. Sadvari before a Justice of the Peace in the State of Delaware to rule on the legality of the arrest and failed to request his extradition from the State of Delaware to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as mandated by the provisions of the Delaware Code regulating fresh pursuit into the State of Delaware from another jurisdiction.
Appellant's Brief at 3. Without question, it is the province of the suppression court to make findings of fact and conclusions of law as to whether evidence was obtained in violation of an accused's constitutional rights. Commonwealth v. Burnside, 425 Pa.Super. 425, 625 A.2d 678, 680 (1993). In reviewing a trial court's denial of a motion to suppress, the appellate court's responsibility is to ascertain whether the record supports the factual findings of the suppression court and the legitimacy of the inferences and legal conclusions drawn from those findings. Commonwealth v. Brundidge, 533 Pa. 167, 170, 620 A.2d 1115, 1116 (1993).
Two Delaware statutes are pertinent to our determination of whether the suppression court committed an error of law by failing to suppress evidence obtained as a result of Appellant's arrest. Section 1932 and 1933 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code provide as follows:
1932. Arrest by out-of-state police.
(a) Any member of a duly organized state, county or municipal peace unit of another state of the United States who enters this State in fresh pursuit, and continues within this State in such fresh pursuit, of a person in order to arrest the person on the ground that the person is believed to have committed a felony, a misdemeanor or a violation of the motor vehicle code in such other state, shall have the same authority to arrest and hold such person in custody, as has any member of any duly organized state, county or municipal peace unit of this State, to arrest and hold in custody a person on the ground that the person is believed to have committed a felony, a misdemeanor or a violation of the Motor Vehicle Code in this State.
(b) This section shall not be construed so as to make unlawful any arrest in this State which would otherwise be lawful.
11 Del.Code. § 1932 (emphasis added).
The parties do not dispute that following Appellant's arrest, Trooper Damico violated section 1933 of the Delaware Code by failing to take Appellant before a justice of the peace or a magistrate prior to removing him from the State of Delaware. Appellant argues that Trooper Damico's violation of Section 1933 negates the lawfulness of the arrest, thereby requiring suppression of all fruits of the arrest. In support, Appellant directs our attention to this Court's recent holding in Commonwealth v. Shaffer, 710 A.2d 89 (Pa.Super.1998).
Certainly, the facts in Shaffer are quite similar to those in the instant case. In Shaffer, a Pennsylvania State Trooper stopped the defendant's vehicle for a speeding violation in New York State, approximately seven-tenths of a mile from the Pennsylvania border. Based upon his observations, the trooper asked the defendant to perform field sobriety tests, which the defendant failed. Thereafter, the trooper placed the defendant under arrest and transported him back to Pennsylvania and charged him with driving under the influence.
Prior to trial, the defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence based upon a violation of the New York Uniform Act on Close Pursuit, CPL 140.55. The New York Uniform Act on Close Pursuit provides, in relevant part:
2. Any peace officer of another state of the United States, who enters this state in close pursuit and continues in this state in such close pursuit of a person in order to arrest him, shall have the same authority to arrest and hold in custody such person on the ground that he has committed a crime in another state which is a crime under the laws of the state of New York, as police officer of this state have to arrest and hold in custody a person on the ground that he has committed a crime in this state.
3. If an arrest is made in this state by an officer of another state in accordance with the provisions of subdivision two, he shall without unnecessary delay take the person arrested before a local criminal court which shall conduct a hearing for the sole purpose of determining of the arrest was in accordance with the provisions of subdivision two, and not of determining the guilt of innocence of the arrested person. If such court determines that the arrest was in accordance with such subdivision, it shall commit the person arrested to the custody of the officer making the arrest, who shall without unnecessary delay take him to the state from which he fled. If such court determines that the arrest was unlawful, it shall discharge the person arrested.
CPL 140.55 (emphasis added).
The Shaffer Court analyzed the issue as one of police authority. The authority of a Pennsylvania State Trooper to make an arrest in New York State, if any, "is gained only through the grace of New York State." Shaffer, 710 A.2d at 91. We held that under the New York statute, "[i]f [the arrest is] n...
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Com. v. Sadvari
...affirmed, reasoning that Section 1933 is an extradition statute to which the exclusionary rule does not apply, see Commonwealth v. Sadvari, 723 A.2d 1044, 1049 (Pa.Super.1998), and this Court allowed appeal to review such In this appeal, Sadvari argues that in construing Section 1933 of the......