Com. v. Sadvari

• Decision Date: 18 May 2000
• Citation: 752 A.2d 393,561 Pa. 588
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Stephen S. SADVARI, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

752 A.2d 393

561 Pa. 588

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Stephen S. SADVARI, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued January 31, 2000.

Decided May 18, 2000.

Dennis Woody, Media, for Stephen S. Sadvari.

Patrick Meehan, Dist. Atty., Louis G. Stesis, A. Sheldon Kovach, District Attorney's Office, for Com.

Before FLAHERTY, C.J., and ZAPPALA, CAPPY, CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN and SAYLOR, JJ.

OPINION

SAYLOR, Justice.

In this case we consider the lawfulness of an extraterritorial arrest of a Delaware citizen for an offense occurring in Pennsylvania.

On October 31, 1996, at approximately 2:45 a.m., two Pennsylvania State Police Troopers were traveling south on State Route 202 in a marked police cruiser. As the troopers neared the Pennsylvania-Delaware border, they observed a vehicle operated by Appellant, Stephen Sadvari ("Sadvari"), approach from behind at a high rate of speed, abruptly decelerate as it reached the rear of the police cruiser, then proceed past. The troopers began following, clocking Sadvari at approximately 60 miles per hour in a 45 mile per hour speed zone. Shortly after crossing the Pennsylvania-Delaware state line, the troopers activated their emergency lights, stopping Sadvari approximately fourtenths of a mile inside the state of Delaware. When one of the troopers requested Sadvari's license and registration, he smelled a strong odor of alcohol and noticed Sadvari's slurred speech and bloodshot eyes. Upon questioning, Sadvari admitted drinking after work, at which point he was asked to step out of his vehicle and perform two field sobriety tests. Sadvari failed the tests and was arrested and transported to Riddle Memorial Hospital in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where blood samples were drawn for chemical testing. A subsequent analysis of the samples revealed a blood alcohol content of.16%. Sadvari was then taken to the State Police barracks near Media, Pennsylvania, and was ultimately released. On November 12, 1996, a criminal complaint was filed, charging Sadvari with driving under the influence of alcohol and exceeding the maximum speed limit. A preliminary hearing was held on January 9, 1997, following which the driving under the influence offense was held for court.¹

Prior to trial, Sadvari moved, inter alia, to suppress the evidence of the driving under the influence offense, particularly his statements at the time of the stop, the observations of the troopers, and the blood alcohol test results. At the hearing on his suppression motion, Sadvari argued that such evidence was the product of an unlawful arrest because the arrest was not conducted in accordance with Section 1933 of Delaware's fresh pursuit statute, Del. Code, tit. 11, §§ 1031-1933,² which provides as follows:

Hearing before justice of the peace; waiver of extradition

If an arrest is made in this State by an officer of another state in accordance with § 1932 of this title, the officer shall without unnecessary delay take the person arrested before a justice of the peace of the county in which the arrest was made, who shall conduct a hearing for the purpose of determining the lawfulness of the arrest. If the justice of the peace determines that the arrest was lawful the justice of the peace shall commit the person arrested to await for a reasonable time the issuance of an extradition warrant by the Governor of this State, or admit the person for bail for such purpose. If the justice of the peace determines that the arrest was unlawful the justice of the peace shall discharge the person arrested.

If the person so arrested waives extradition in the manner provided by law, upon the filing of the waiver at the central office of headquarters of any local, county or state police, or at the local office of the Attorney General, the office having the arrested person in charge may forthwith take the person from this State to the state where the arrested person is wanted for having committed the felony.

Del.Code, tit. 11, § 1933. Since the Pennsylvania State Troopers never brought him before a Delaware justice of the peace as directed by the statute, Sadvari contended that the arrest was illegal and warranted suppression, although conceding that the troopers had otherwise acted within the authority provided by Section 1932 of the Delaware statute:

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 the 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 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.

Del.Code, tit. 11, § 1932.³

The suppression court found that the troopers had probable cause to stop Sadvari, and that Section 1932 of the Delaware statute granted them authority to enter Delaware while in fresh pursuit and conduct an arrest. While the court agreed with Sadvari that he should have been taken before a Delaware justice of the peace as required by Section 1933 of the Delaware statute, it viewed this requirement as an extradition provision. Thus, the court concluded that suppression of the evidence was not appropriate, since the violation of Delaware law did not affect either the reliability of the evidence seized or Sadvari's constitutional rights. Sadvari proceeded to a jury trial, was found guilty and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of thirty days to twenty-three months. On appeal, the Superior Court 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 conclusion.⁴

In this appeal, Sadvari argues that in construing Section 1933 of the Delaware statute as an extradition provision, the Superior Court ignored the focus of the enactment upon the initial arrest and the directive that a Delaware justice of the peace determine its lawfulness. As a Delaware tribunal was not provided the opportunity to pass upon the propriety of the troopers' entry and actions in Delaware, Sadvari asserts that the motor vehicle stop was unlawful, thereby tainting all of the evidence that followed.⁵ According to Sadvari, the Superior Court's opinion is in conflict with its prior decision in Commonwealth v. Shaffer, 710 A.2d 89 (Pa.Super.1998), appeal denied, 1999 WL 117669 (Pa. Mar.9, 1999). The Commonwealth, on the other hand, maintains that Section 1933 is merely an extradition provision and that the failure to comply with it cannot render an initially lawful arrest unlawful. Alternatively, the Commonwealth asserts that even if the arrest is deemed unlawful, only the blood samples and chemical test results constitute fruits of such illegality, and the remedy of suppression should be tailored accordingly.

In Commonwealth v. Shaffer, the Superior Court considered the propriety of an extraterritorial arrest of a Pennsylvania citizen that occurred in New York. In that case, a Pennsylvania State Trooper followed a speeding vehicle over the Pennsylvania/New York border, arrested the driver after he failed field sobriety tests and transported him back to Pennsylvania, where he was charged with driving under the influence. The defendant sought suppression based upon a violation of the New York Uniform Act on Close Pursuit, N.Y.Crim. Pro. Law § 140.55, which provides, in relevant part:

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 if the arrest was in accordance with the provisions of subdivision two....

N.Y.Crim. Pro. Law § 140.55.⁶ The trial court granted the defendant's motion to suppress based upon the Commonwealth's concession of a violation of the New York enactment, since the defendant was not taken before a New York criminal court. The Superior Court determined that a Pennsylvania officer has no inherent authority to effect an arrest in New York; rather, his authority to do so is derived from the New York close pursuit statute and is conditioned by the terms of such enactment upon timely validation by a New York court. Since the trooper did not take the defendant before a local criminal court, the Superior Court deemed the arrest unlawful. Shaffer, 710 A.2d at 91. Further, the Superior Court found that, in light of the situs of the arrest in New York and the New York legislature's designation of a procedure for review of such an arrest, the trooper's noncompliance constituted an impingement upon New York's jurisdiction and sovereignty. Given this concern, when it turned to the question of remedy, the Shaffer court held that suppression of the evidence was appropriate to ensure accountability of police officers in carrying out their duties. See Shaffer, 710 A.2d at 92

(citing Commonwealth v. Price, 543 Pa. 403, 672 A.2d 280 (1996)). Additionally, the court rejected the Commonwealth's argument that New York's good faith exception to the exclusionary rule should apply, as the defendant was a Pennsylvania citizen and "it is for Pennsylvania to dictate how its police officers are to carry out their duties and the consequences for violating such dictates." Id. at 92.

In the present case, ...