Com. v. Triplett
| Decision Date | 29 August 1989 |
| Citation | 564 A.2d 227,387 Pa.Super. 378 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Franklin TRIPLETT, Appellant. 1237 PITTS. 1988 |
| Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Jon S. Pushinsky, Pittsburgh, for appellant.
Ahmed Aziz, Asst. Dist. Atty., Aliquippa, for Com., appellee.
Before WIEAND, DEL SOLE and MELINSON, JJ.
This appeal is from an order denying Appellant, Franklin Triplett's, PCHA petition. After a non-jury trial, Appellant was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol or controlled substance, 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3731, and leaving the scene of an accident involving damage to an attended vehicle, 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3743. Trial counsel failed to file post-trial motions and by motion an order was entered dismissing Appellant's direct appeal but permitting him to file for relief under the Post Conviction Hearing Act. Following a PCHA hearing on the issues originally raised in his direct appeal, Appellant was denied relief.
This case arises out of an incident which occurred in the Borough of Ambridge, Beaver County. Evelyn Wilson was driving her car in Ambridge at about 9:30 in the evening when it was struck by an automobile operated by Appellant, Franklin Triplett. He left the scene of the accident without stopping and proceeded into Allegheny County.
Officer Bruce Poninsky of Leet Township, Allegheny County testified that at approximately 9:30 on that same evening, he was stopped at a store in Leetsdale 1 approximately three blocks from the scene of the accident and about a block and a half from the Beaver County border. While he was there, an unidentified man came on the premises and told him that he had witnessed a hit and run accident and that the car was a small red vehicle. The man gave the officer the license plate number of the vehicle. Upon receiving this information, Officer Poninsky resumed his patrol and proceeded after the red car. He spotted it almost immediately, and while pursuing he heard a radio transmission from Ambridge concerning a hit and run accident. About three-quarters of a mile from the store he stopped Mr. Triplett. Before exiting his patrol car, Officer Poninsky contacted the Ambridge police and asked that an officer come to Leetsdale to determine if Mr. Triplett's auto was involved in the hit and run.
Within minutes, Ambridge Officer Kuzma arrived at the scene. Both officers testified that Mr. Triplett smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech and glazed eyes. Appellant staggered as he got out of the car, could barely stand, and had to be helped from his car to the patrol car. The officers also found green paint matching that of Ms. Wilson's vehicle on a damaged part of Appellant's car.
The Ambridge officer took Appellant to the hospital for blood tests, stopping on the way at the Ambridge police station for the required forms. Evelyn Wilson was in the police station waiting to make her report when the police brought Mr. Triplett into the station, but she did not make a formal identification of Appellant at that time. The results of the blood test were .32. The Appellant was charged with the crime in Ambridge, Beaver County.
On appeal, Mr. Triplett raises four issues for our review: (1) whether the arrest of Appellant was illegal, (2) whether the case should have been dismissed for violation of Rule 1100, (3) whether the trial court committed prejudicial error by admitting the results of Mr. Triplett's blood test, and (4) whether the in-court identification of Mr. Triplett by a witness who viewed him in a face to face confrontation in the police station with no other person present is tainted, and in violation of the due process clause of the Constitution.
We will discuss each issue seriatim. After thoroughly reviewing the issues and the record we affirm the trial court's decision.
Appellant asserts that his arrest was illegal on several grounds. First, he claims that the stop by Officer Poninsky in Allegheny County was an illegal arrest because it violated Pa.R.Crim.P., Rule 51, 42 Pa.C.S.A. and 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 6304(b), which authorizes an arrest only of a non-resident on a summary offense and only if the offense were committed in the presence of the police officer. Since the hit and run occurred outside the presence of any police officer, according to Appellant, the arrest in Allegheny County was illegal.
Although we agree that the summary offense of failing to stop at the scene of the accident, 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3743, was not committed in the presence of a police officer, no determination of the residential status of the Appellant was made. However, we need not ascertain whether Appellant was a non-resident for the purposes of 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 6304(b) which concerns warrantless arrests for summary offenses, since Officer Poninsky did not arrest Appellant when he stopped him in Leetsdale.
Rather, this stop may be characterized as an investigation detention, which subjects the suspect to a stop and a period of detention. It must be supported by reasonable suspicion, but does not involve such coercive conditions as to constitute the functional equivalent of arrest. Commonwealth v. Douglass, 372 Pa.Super. 227, 539 A.2d 412 (1988). Furthermore, 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 6308(c) authorizes a police officer who has articulable and reasonable grounds to find a violation of this title, to stop a vehicle upon request or signal, in order to secure such information as the officer finds necessary to enforce the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Code. See, Commonwealth v. Fisher, 294 Pa.Super. 486, 490-91, 440 A.2d 570 (1982).
Here, Officer Poninsky had reasonable and articulable grounds to suspect a violation of the Motor Vehicle Code by Appellant. He had been informed that a car fitting the description of Appellant's car as to color and license plate number, had been involved in a "hit and run." Shortly thereafter, the officer heard a Beaver County police radio broadcast concerning the reported hit and run. After stopping Appellant's car, the officer told him he was stopped for a possible hit and run and that the Ambridge police were coming to question him. Appellant was detained for approximately three minutes before the Ambridge police officer arrived, during which time Officer Poninsky only asked to see the Appellant's license and registration. He did not ask the Appellant to get out of his car. Therefore, because the stop was supported by reasonable suspicion, involved a minimal amount of coercion, and a brief period of detention, it was a legal investigative detention by the officer in Allegheny County.
Next, Appellant argues that if the arrest were effectuated by Officer Kuzma from Ambridge, the arrest was unlawful because Officer Kuzma was not in "fresh pursuit," and had no authority to arrest Mr. Triplett outside his own jurisdiction. Although we agree that the arrest was made outside Officer Kuzma's jurisdiction, and he was not in "fresh pursuit," of Appellant as defined in Commonwealth v. Brown, 298 Pa.Super. 11, 444 A.2d 149 (1982); Commonwealth v. Magwood, 503 Pa. 169, 469 A.2d 115 (1983), we hold that the arrest was legal because Officer Kuzma was coming to aid the Leet officer. When officers are asked to leave their primary jurisdiction and assist in an adjacent jurisdiction, then the officers assisting are granted all the powers conferred on the police as if acting within their primary jurisdiction.
42 Pa.C.S.A. § 8953 regulates municipal police operating outside their jurisdiction. The general purpose of the statute is to restrict the jurisdiction of the police to their own municipalities, while allowing certain practical and policy exceptions to the general rule. Commonwealth v. Merchant, 385 Pa.Super. 264, 560 A.2d 795 (1989). Subsection (a)(3) provides that a police officer has the power and authority to enforce the laws of this Commonwealth or otherwise perform the functions of that office beyond the the territorial limits of primary jurisdiction as if enforcing those laws within the officer's primary jurisdiction when the officer has been requested to aid or assist any local, State or Federal law enforcement officer or otherwise has probable cause to believe that the other officer is in need of aid or assistance.
Commonwealth v. Peppers, 357 Pa.Super. 270, 515 A.2d 971 (1986), was the first case in our court to address the application of subsection (a)(3). In that case, an officer heard a radio broadcast description of a robbery suspect's vehicle from a nearby vehicle. After a radio conversation between Officers of the two municipalities, the first officer stopped a vehicle matching the broadcast...
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