Com. v. Vogel, M. ( 2022 )

J-A27033-21
NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
: PENNSYLVANIA
:
v. :
:
:
MICHAEL CHARLES VOGEL :
:
Appellant : No. 538 EDA 2021
Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered February 22, 2021
In the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-
39-CR-0005309-2019
BEFORE: PANELLA, P.J., DUBOW, J., and McCAFFERY, J.
MEMORANDUM BY DUBOW, J.: FILED FEBRUARY 8, 2022
Appellant, Michael Charles Vogel, appeals from the February 22, 2021
Judgment of Sentence entered in the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas
following his conviction of Driving Under the Influence (“DUI”). Appellant
challenges the trial court’s denial of his pre-trial Motion to Suppress. After
careful review, we reverse.
Following a traffic stop on September 14, 2019, the Commonwealth
charged Appellant with two counts of DUI and one count of Failure to Drive
within Lane.1 Appellant filed an Omnibus Pretrial Motion, including a motion
to suppress, contending that the traffic stop that lead to his arrest was
illegal. In particular, Appellant asserted that the arresting officer, Upper
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1 75 Pa.C.S. §§ 3802(a)(2) and 3309(1), respectively.
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Macungie Police Officer Philip Shedaker, lacked probable cause to stop
Appellant for violating Section 3309(1) of the Motor Vehicle Code because
Appellant’s diversions from his lane of traffic were only momentary and
minor.
The suppression court held a hearing on the motion to suppress at
which Officer Shedaker testified. The court also viewed and admitted into
evidence the DVD recording produced by the mobile video recording (“MVR”)
unit on Officer Shedaker’s patrol vehicle, which captured footage of
Appellant’s vehicle prior to and during the traffic stop.2 Officer Shedaker’s
testimony and the MVR recording established the following relevant facts.
On September 14, 2019, at approximately 3:21 AM, Appellant was
travelling eastbound on Shantz Road in South Whitehall Township. Officer
Shedaker was following behind Appellant with his MVR activated. After
following Appellant for a short distance, Office Shedaker began narrating his
observations of Appellant’s conduct noting that “it looks like [Appellant]’s
struggling.”3
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2 The MVR recording from the time Officer Shedaker began following
Appellant until he pulled Appellant over is approximately two minutes in
duration.
3 MVR Recording, 9/14/19, at 39 seconds.
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As he continued to follow Appellant, Officer Shedaker observed
Appellant hit the double yellow line “almost simultaneously”4 with passing a
car travelling in the opposite direction. Then, shortly thereafter, he
observed Appellant cross the double yellow line. When Appellant crossed
the double yellow line, the MVR recording captured Officer Shedaker state
“oh yeah, he crossed over the doubles there.”5
Approximately, 35 seconds later, Officer Shedaker, still narrating his
observations, indicated that he planned to pull Appellant over when there
was a wider shoulder on the road. As Officer Shedaker activated his lights
to pull Appellant over, he observed Appellant cross over the white fog line
with his passenger side tires.6 Appellant pulled his vehicle over7 and, after
administering field sobriety tests, Officer Shedaker cited him for the above
violations of the Motor Vehicle Code.
On cross-examination, Officer Shedaker clarified that Appellant had hit
or struck the double yellow line on one occasion and had crossed it once.
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4 N.T. Suppression, 6/15/20, at 8, 16.
5 MVR Recording at 43 seconds.
6 Officer Shedaker testified that it is not unusual for a driver to touch the fog
line when taking that right hand curve.
7 Officer Shedaker noticed that Appellant’s eyes were glassy and his speech
slurred. He conducted field sobriety tests and determined that Appellant
was unable to safely operate a motor vehicle. Appellant subsequently
consented to a blood alcohol test that revealed his blood alcohol level to be
at .09%.
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Officer Shedaker acknowledged that the driver of the vehicle that passed
Appellant did not swerve out of the way, suddenly apply his brakes, or take
any other evasive action to avoid being struck by Appellant. In fact, Officer
Shedaker agreed that that driver seemed not to have noticed that Appellant
was coming anywhere near his vehicle or the lines. Officer Shedaker
conceded that Appellant’s actions did not pose any danger to the passing
vehicle. He also conceded that when Appellant later crossed the double
yellow lines Appellant did not present any danger to pedestrians or property.
Officer Shedaker asserted that when he observed Appellant move
within his lane and then strike the double yellow line as the other car
passed, he had a “little bit of reasonable suspicion to kind of watch”
Appellant’s conduct.8 He confirmed that he perceived Appellant’s Section
3309(1) violation to have actually occurred when Appellant later crossed
over the double yellow lines.9 Importantly, however, Officer Shedaker
agreed that Appellant’s conduct constituted “a very minor deviation in
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8 N.T. Suppression at 24.
9 Id. at 23-24. Officer Shedaker later testified that, when he spoke with
Appellant immediately after pulling him over, he informed Appellant that he
effectuated the traffic stop for the sole reason that Officer Shedaker
observed Appellant “go over the double yellow.” Id. at 28.
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driving . . . meaning [he] crossed over very briefly for . . . a second and
then [he] came back into his lane.”10
Following the hearing, the suppression court denied Appellant’s motion
to suppress. The court found that Appellant’s deviation from his lane was
not momentary and minor, but instead that Appellant struggled for the
entire time Officer Shedaker was following him.11 It, thus, concluded that
Officer Shedaker had probable cause to stop Appellant’s vehicle.
Appellant proceeded to a non-jury trial where the court convicted him
of one count of DUI. This timely appeal followed. Appellant complied with
the court’s order to file a Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement. In lieu of filing a
Rule 1925(a) opinion, the trial court relied on the suppression court’s July
27, 2020 opinion in support of its order denying Appellant’s suppression
motion.
Appellant raises the following issue on appeal:
Did the suppression court err when it denied Appellant[’s]
suppression motion, both because its factual findings were not
supported by the suppression record, and because the legal
conclusions drawn from the actual facts were incorrect?
Appellant’s Brief at 4.
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10 Id. at 25. See also id. at 31 (where Officer Shedaker agrees that
Appellant “crosse[d] over, momentary and minor, meaning one second and
then re-corrects in the lane without any issues”).
11 Suppression Ct. Op., 7/27/20, at 5 (unpaginated).
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Appellant argues that the trial court erred in denying Appellant’s
suppression motion because the record did not support the trial court’s
finding that Appellant had engaged in conduct constituting more than a
momentary and minor lane deviation. Id. at 11. Appellant also argues that
the court erred in concluding that, as a matter of law, Officer Shedaker had
probable cause necessary to establish a violation of Section 3309(1) because
the record did not establish, and the court did not find, that the manner in
which Appellant operated his vehicle created a demonstrable safety hazard.
Id. at 11-12.
Standard of Review
We review the suppression court’s denial of a motion to suppress to
determine whether the record supports the court’s factual findings and
whether the legal conclusions drawn from those facts are correct.
Commonwealth v. Eichinger, 915 A.2d 1122, 1134 (Pa. 2007). In
conducting this review, we consider “only the evidence of the prosecution
and so much of the evidence of the defense as remains uncontradicted when
read in the context of the [suppression] record as a whole.” Id. We are
bound by the facts as found by the suppression court, so long as they are
supported by the record. Id. We “may reverse only if the legal conclusions
drawn therefrom are in error.” Id.“It is within the suppression court’s sole province as factfinder to pass
on the credibility of witnesses and the weight to be given to their testimony.
The suppression court is free to believe all, some or none of the evidence
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presented at the suppression hearing.” Commonwealth v. Elmobdy, 823
A.2d 180, 183 (Pa. Super. 2003) (citation omitted).
Officer Shedaker conducted a traffic stop based on a suspected
violation of Section 3309(1), which provides as follows:
§ 3309. Driving on roadways laned for traffic
Whenever any roadway has been divided into two or more
clearly marked lanes for traffic the following rules in addition to
all others not inconsistent therewith shall apply:
(1) Driving within single lane.--A vehicle shall be
driven as nearly as practicable entirely within a single lane
and shall not be moved from the lane until the driver has
first ascertained that the movement can be made with
safety.
75 Pa.C.S. § 3309(1).
In order to conduct a traffic stop based on an observed violation of
Section 3309(1), a police offer must have probable cause. Commonwealth
v. Cephus, 208 A.3d 1096, 1099 (Pa. Super. 2019); see also
Commonwealth v. Ibrahim, 127 A.3d 819, 823 (Pa. Super. 2015)
(citation omitted) (explaining that “[i]f it is not necessary to stop the vehicle
to establish that a violation of the Vehicle Code has occurred, an officer must
possess probable cause to stop the vehicle.”).
To determine whether probable cause exists, we must consider
whether the facts and circumstances[,] which are within the
knowledge of the officer at the time of the arrest, and of which
he has reasonably trustworthy information, are sufficient to
warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that the
suspect has committed or is committing a crime.
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Id. at 824 (citation and quotation marks omitted). But see Cephus, 208
A.3d at 1097 (acknowledging confusion and inconsistency in this Court’s
decisions analyzing the validity of stops based on violations of Section
3309(1)).
“Whether an officer possesses probable cause to stop a vehicle for a
violation of [] [S]ection [3309(1)] depends largely upon whether a driver’s
movement from his lane is done safely.” Commonwealth v. Cook, 865
A.2d 869, 874 (Pa. Super. 2004). Moreover, the language of Section
3309(1), which requires motorists to maintain a single lane “as nearly as
practicable,” “does not foreclose minor deviations.” Commonwealth v.
Enick, 70 A.3d 843, 847 (Pa. Super. 2013).
In support of his claim that Officer Shedaker did not have probable
cause to stop him for violation Section 3309(1), Appellant relies on our
Supreme Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Gleason, 785 A.2d 983(Pa. 2001), and this Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Garcia, 859
A.2d 820 (Pa. Super. 2004). In Gleason, a police officer observed the
appellant’s vehicle cross approximately six to eight inches over the white fog
line twice over a quarter mile of road. 785 A.2d at 983, 985. The police
officer did not see any other vehicles on the road. Id. The Gleason Court
concluded that the vehicle stop was not supported by probable cause
because the record did not establish that the appellant violated Section
3309(1), where there was no evidence that the appellant crossing the white
fog line by a few inches “created a safety hazard.” Id. at 989.
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The Garcia Court considered the facts and applied the holding in
Gleason, to conclude, as a matter of law, that “where a vehicle is driven
outside the lane of traffic for just a momentary period of time and in a minor
manner, a traffic stop is unwarranted.” Garcia, 859 A.2d at 823.
Here, Officer Shedaker testified that Appellant did not present a
danger to any other vehicles on the road, to pedestrians, or to property.
Additionally, Officer Shedaker admitted that Appellant only crossed the
double yellow lines for “one second and then re-correct[ed] in the lane
without any issues” in a manner that constituted “a very minor deviation in
driving.” N.T. at 25, 31. Given this testimony establishing the relatively
minor nature of the infraction, its brief duration, and that it created no
safety hazard, the record does not support the trial court’s finding that
Appellant’s “deviation from his lane of travel was not momentary and
minor.” Suppression Ct. Op. at 5.
Accordingly, we conclude that the traffic stop giving rise to Appellant’s
arrest was not supported by probable cause and the trial court erred as a
matter of law in denying Appellant’s motion to suppress.
Judgment of Sentence vacated. Jurisdiction relinquished.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 2/8/2022
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