Hardy v. State
| Citation | 709 A.2d 168,121 Md.App. 345 |
| Decision Date | 01 September 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 1503,1503 |
| Parties | Christopher Leon HARDY v. STATE of Maryland. , |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Emmet Davitt, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., Baltimore, and Jack B. Johnson, State's Atty. for Prince George's County, Upper Marlboro, on the brief), for appellee.
Argued before MOYLAN, HOLLANDER and EYLER, JJ.
On October 6, 1997, Christopher Leon Hardy, appellant, entered a plea of not guilty to various drug charges, pursuant to an agreed statement of facts. Thereafter, the Circuit Court for Prince George's County found him guilty of possession with the intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance, in violation of Maryland Code (1957, 1996 Repl.Vol.), Article 27, § 286(f)(1)(iii). After appellant was sentenced to a mandatory term of five years of incarceration, he noted this appeal. He presents one question for our review, which we have rephrased:
Did the motion court err in denying appellant's motion to suppress physical evidence based on an unlawful vehicle stop that was made in response to an anonymous tip?
As we answer this question in the affirmative, we shall reverse the conviction.
On March 27, 1997, appellant was arrested when police officers recovered 227 grams of crack cocaine from his person during a felony traffic stop. Hardy was subsequently charged with possession with the intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance, in violation of Code, Article 27, §§ 286(a)(1) and 286(f)(1)(iii), and with simple possession, in violation of Art. 27, § 287(a).
The court held an evidentiary hearing with respect to appellant's motion to suppress. At the hearing, Officer Brandon Sprague of the Prince George's County Police Department testified on behalf of the State. According to Sprague, at approximately 12:33 p.m. on March 27, 1997, the police received information from an anonymous caller that "a burgundy Honda was traveling eastbound on East-West Highway and the occupants were believed to have weapons and drugs in the car." This information was then broadcast to police officers in the area. Upon receiving the information, Officer Sprague proceeded to the area around East-West Highway and Belcrest Road, where he observed a burgundy Honda Officer Sprague further testified that the police stopped the vehicle in a public parking lot near Belcrest and Toledo Road in Hyattsville, Maryland. A K-9 Unit also responded to the scene. The occupants were ordered by police to exit the vehicle. Using a bull-horn and with their guns drawn, the police instructed the occupants to walk backwards toward the police cruisers. The police then handcuffed the occupants and patted them for weapons. 2
Accord with Virginia temporary license plates, matching the description of the vehicle "put out over the radio." 1 A patrol car from the Riverdale Police Department was following the suspect automobile
Officer Sprague testified concerning the pat-down of appellant by Corporal Randall S. Matthews. He stated:
[Corporal Matthews] patted him down in the groin area, and he could feel something in his pants. I can't describe what he could feel, and you could also hear like a plastic bag sounds in his groin, and Corporal Matthews investigated further, and opened his pants, and pulled a large bag of crack cocaine, suspected crack cocaine, from his groin area.
Thereafter, the court engaged in the following colloquy with Officer Sprague:
Corporal Randall S. Matthews, assigned to the K-9 Unit of the Prince George's County Police Department, Special Operations Division, also testified for the State. He said that a radio dispatch had been broadcast concerning three "subjects alleged to be armed and in possession of a quantity of narcotics." Although Corporal Matthews thought that the broadcast included "a description of the vehicle," he did not testify as to the description. Corporal Matthews also explained that the suspects were in a vehicle that was "supposed to be coming from the area of Capital Plaza towards Toledo Plaza, so [he] tried to get in the middle, basically, between those two spots, and see if [he] could spot the car."
As he was approaching Toledo Terrace, Corporal Matthews recounted that he learned from a police broadcast that the vehicle had been spotted by Riverdale police and was pulling into a parking lot off Toledo Terrace. At that point, Corporal Matthews "got on the radio and requested that [the police] not approach the car until [he] got there and [he] could take [his] K-9 partner out."
Upon his arrival at the scene, Corporal Matthews observed three people exiting the suspect vehicle. He frisked the three occupants, in order to determine whether they were carrying any weapons. During the patdown of the first occupant, Corporal Matthews was told that appellant had drugs on his possession. In frisking appellant, Corporal Matthews felt a hard object in appellant's groin area, which he thought was narcotics. The following testimony is pertinent:
After handing the suspected narcotics to another police officer, Corporal Matthews took his police dog and conducted a search of the Honda. This search did not yield any additional narcotics or any weapons. Thereafter, the court questioned Corporal Matthews. The following exchange is relevant:
Appellant did not present any evidence at the hearing. At the close of the evidence, the State argued that the police had The trial court acknowledged that it was "concerned of what right [the police] had to stop that car." Because the court thought the matter constituted a "close case," it took appellant's motion to suppress "under advisement."
a right to stop the car and detain its occupants to determine the accuracy of the anonymous tip. The defense argued that appellant was under arrest when he was subjected to a felony stop and that the arrest was not supported by probable cause. Appellant also asserted that the tip contained insufficient detail to justify the stop. Indeed, Hardy contended that the information from the anonymous source was inadequate to justify even a Terry 3 stop of the vehicle and its occupants.
Subsequently, by order dated October 3, 1997, the court denied appellant's motion to suppress. The order provided, in part:
In the case at hand the police officers had a tip describing the vehicle, the direction it was going and the number of occupants (3). Relying on their personal experiences, the officers were aware that weapons are usually associated with drug activity, the officers explained that they drew their guns and ordered the occupants out of the vehicle and conducted a "frisk" of the defendant. The length of detention was relatively brief, there was no arrest at that time but a forcible detention. Police then observed a "bulge" in defendant's trousers which was properly seized pursuant to an appropriate "pat down."
Here, the combination of the description of the vehicle leaving the Bladensburg area, travelling towards East-West Highway, going to Belcrest or Toledo Terrace was sufficient under the totality of the circumstances to justify the investigatory stop.
Therefore, balancing the facts the officers relied upon to make the stop against the defendant's right to be free from any arbitrary intrusions by the State, this Court finds that (Citations omitted).
the officer's suspicion was reasonable and the stop was justified, albeit a ["]close case."
Appellant asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress. He claims that the tip from the anonymous informant was too vague and uncertain to establish a particularized and objective basis for suspecting that appellant was armed and dangerous or engaged in criminal activity. In particular, he suggests that the anonymous tip indicated only that the vehicle was proceeding "from one general area to another very public area," and was not sufficient to constitute a statement of...
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