John C., In re, 80-203-A

• Decision Date: 13 February 1981
• Docket Number: No. 80-203-A,80-203-A
• Citation: 425 A.2d 536
• Parties: In re JOHN C. and James C. ppeal.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 536

425 A.2d 536

In re JOHN C. and James C.

No. 80-203-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Feb. 13, 1981.

Walter F. Richardson III, Asst. Town Sol., West Warwick, for petitioner.

Murphy, Mullen & Jarret, James J. Mullen, Providence, William F. Reilly, Public Defender, Barbara Hurst, Janice M. Weisfeld, Paula Rosin, Asst. Public Defenders, for respondents.

OPINION

KELLEHER, Justice.

At approximately 3 p. m. on Friday, November 16, 1979, Patrolman Thomas C. Cornicelli (Cornicelli) was on patrol in the Natick section of West Warwick when he received a radio message that a housebreak was "possibly in progress" at 77 Quaker Lane. Cornicelli was ordered to proceed to the Quaker Lane area. Further radio communications indicated that firearms were part of the loot.

While Cornicelli was leaving the Natick area, Detective Joseph M. Rossi (Rossi) was driving easterly along Route 117 to the West Warwick police headquarters in a patrol car that had been sent to the neighboring town of Coventry for repairs. Rossi, a police officer for over eleven years, was directed to proceed to the Route 2 area. As he was traveling south on Route 2, Rossi "observed two male subjects in the rear of the Alderic Building in a swampy area." At that moment the suspects were approximately "500 yards" away from the scene of the break. Rossi contacted the Quaker Lane patrol and told Cornicelli to "apprehend" the subjects.

Cornicelli did as he was told. He drove into the parking lot alongside the Alderic Building and "asked the boys" to leave the swamp and climb up an embankment to the parking lot. The boys complied with Cornicelli's request. After Cornicelli asked the boys what they were doing, he frisked them for weapons. He then placed the duo in the back seat of his car and shut the door. Cornicelli's cruiser had a cage that separated the back-seat area from the front-seat portion of the vehicle. The rear-door handles had been removed so that once the doors were shut, the boys no longer were free to leave. The boys are the respondents, John C. and James C. John and James, who in November 1979 were fifteen and fourteen years of age, respectively, are not related to each other.

When Rossi arrived in the parking lot, he opened the cage. The boys were told to get out of Cornicelli's cruiser. Rossi performed a second frisk of both youths, and in the process he extracted from John's back pants pocket a silver dollar. The boys were then returned to the cruiser. Rossi took the coin, returned to 77 Quaker Lane, and asked the woman who had reported the break if she had any silver dollars. She indicated that she did have one such item, looked for it, but could not find it. When Rossi showed her the silver dollar taken from John, she identified it as hers.

The boys were transported to police headquarters where they were given their Miranda warnings. John chose to remain silent. However, when James was taken to the photography room for a mug shot, he began to cry and told the police he would show them "where the stuff was." James and two detectives returned to the Quaker Lane area and discovered the loot in a wooded area about 1,000 feet to the rear of 77 Quaker Lane. Photographs introduced at the hearing indicated that the loot included a shotgun, rifles, a camera, coins, and a stereo.

In due course, John and James came before the Family Court on petitions in which the court was asked to adjudge each of them as being delinquent for having broken into a dwelling in the daytime with intent to commit larceny therein. Their mutual defense is a familiar one: a motion to suppress the evidence because the police had no probable cause to arrest them. James also claims that the trial justice erred in admitting his oral confession.

The legality of an arrest is to be determined by the existence of probable cause at the time of the arrest and not what subsequent events disclose. State v. Frazier, R.I., 421 A.2d 546 (1980); State v. Firth, R.I., 418 A.2d 827, 829 (1980); State v. Doukales, 111 R.I. 443, 303 A.2d 769 (1973). At oral argument, West Warwick's assistant town solicitor conceded that once James and John were placed in the rear of the cage car by Cornicelli, they were under arrest. Consequently, the householder's identification of the silver coin is irrelevant to the consideration of the probable-cause issue since the arrest occurred prior to the coin incident.

The definition of probable cause is well established and quite familiar: it exists when, at the moment of arrest, the facts and circumstances within the police officers' knowledge and of which they have reasonably trustworthy information are sufficient to warrant a prudent person's believing that the prospective arrestee had committed or was committing an offense. As the term "probable cause" implies, the concept deals with probabilities, not with certainty; probable cause may exist even though the evidence before the arresting officer may not be sufficient to establish guilt. Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 95 S.Ct. 854, 43 L.Ed.2d 54 (1975); Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969); Palmigiano v. Mullen, R.I., 377 A.2d 242 (1977). Whether or not probable cause exists depends upon the facts and circumstances of a particular case so that a finding of probable cause in one case seldom furnishes an easy solution in another case. The principle to be applied generally, however, is that in evaluating the reasonableness of the actions of arresting officers, a realistic, commonsense appraisal must be made of the circumstances, bearing in mind the practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, and not legal technicians, act. United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 85 S.Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965); Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93...