Com. v. Acosta, Jr., C. ( 2014 )

J-S63028-14
NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
Appellant
v.
CARLOS ALBERTO ACOSTA, JR.
Appellee No. 785 MDA 2014
Appeal from the Order May 2, 2014
In the Court of Common Pleas of Clinton County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-18-CR-0000461-2013
BEFORE: BOWES, J., PANELLA, J., and PLATT, J.
MEMORANDUM BY PANELLA, J. FILED NOVEMBER 13, 2014
The Commonwealth appeals from the order entered on May 2, 2014, in
the Court of Common Pleas of Clinton County, which granted the
suppression motion of Appellee, Carlos Alberto Acosta, Jr.1
The disposition of this appeal turns on whether state troopers
conducted a lawful traffic stop. The stop led to the recovery of heroin from
Acosta. How the troopers recovered the heroin is not pertinent here. We
____________________________________________

Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.
1
This appeal is permissible as the Commonwealth has certified in good faith
that the order submitted for our review substantially handicaps the
prosecution and the appeal is not intended for delay purposes. See
Pa.R.A.P., Rule 311(d); Commonwealth v. Dugger, 486 A.2d 382 (Pa.
1985).
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are solely concerned with the stop. If the stop was unlawful, as the
suppression court found, the troopers illegally seized Acosta and we must
affirm the suppression court’s decision to suppress the evidence. If the stop
was lawful, as the Commonwealth maintains, we must reverse the
suppression court and remand. We conclude that the suppression court
erred and, accordingly, reverse the suppression order.
The parties are familiar with the underlying factual and procedural
history of this case so we set forth only the facts and procedural history
relevant to our determination.
Trooper Kenneth Riggle and his partner were on patrol when at
approximately 1:00 AM he observed a vehicle, the driver of which was later
identified as Acosta, traveling south on State Route 150. The vehicle then
began to turn onto Pennsylvania Avenue. The vehicle’s turn onto
Pennsylvania Avenue caught Trooper Riggle’s attention. As he explained at
the suppression hearing:
The vehicle, when it made it’s [sic] left turn onto Pennsylvania
Avenue, to me, it took a wide turn; and it was headed toward –
there’s a business there, Curt’s Smokin’ Ribs. It looked as
though the vehicle was going to drive into the grass area. The
vehicle slowed down almost to a stop, corrected, and then
turned sharp left to get onto Pennsylvania Avenue.
N.T., Suppression Hearing, 4/28/14, at 6. The sharp turn was necessary
because if the vehicle stayed straight it would have ended up in the grass.
Trooper Riggle “suspected it could have been a DUI” given the fact that the
vehicle looked like it was “going to drive off the roadway” coupled with the
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“wide turn.” Id., at 9-10. Trooper Riggle activated his cruiser’s overhead
lights and pulled the vehicle over. As Acosta pulled over, he failed to use his
turn signal.
At the suppression hearing, Trooper Riggle cited the suspected driving
under the influence and failure to use a turn signal as the reasons for the
traffic stop. See id., at 9. Focusing solely on the failure to use the traffic
signal, the suppression court ruled that the stop was illegal, as “Trooper
Riggle did not observe any other violations of the vehicle code….”
Suppression Court Opinion, 5/2/14, at 3. The suppression court reasoned
that the traffic signal violation could not serve as the basis for the stop as
Trooper Riggle was already in the process of initiating the stop when that
violation occurred. See N.T., Suppression Hearing, 4/28/14, at 24. This
reasoning is sound. But the trooper testified that he pulled Acosta over for
two reasons—the other being that he suspected the driver of being under
the influence. Oddly, the suppression court does not reference, at all, the
trooper’s testimony that he suspected that Acosta was driving under the
influence. Finding no vehicle code violation to justify the stop, the
suppression court granted the suppression motion, suppressing “any and all
evidence seized, observed and/or obtained by the Commonwealth after the
stop of Defendant’s vehicle….” Order, 5/2/14. This timely appeal followed.
Our standard and scope of review of the grant of a suppression motion
is as follows.
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We begin by noting that where a motion to suppress has been
filed, the burden is on the Commonwealth to establish by a
preponderance of the evidence that the challenged evidence is
admissible. In reviewing the ruling of a suppression court, our
task is to determine whether the factual findings are supported
by the record. If so, we are bound by those findings. Where, as
here, it is the Commonwealth who is appealing the decision of
the suppression court, we must consider only the evidence of the
defendant's witnesses and so much of the evidence for the
prosecution as read in the context of the record as a whole
remains uncontradicted.
Moreover, if the evidence supports the factual findings of the
suppression court, this Court will reverse only if there is an error
in the legal conclusions drawn from those findings.
Commonwealth v. Burgos, 64 A.3d 641, 647 (Pa. Super. 2013) (citation
omitted).
As noted, Trooper Riggle conducted a traffic stop as he suspected
Acosta was driving under the influence. “[B]ecause of the severe
consequences of drunken driving in terms of roadway deaths, injuries, and
property damage, ... the government has a compelling interest in detecting
intoxicated drivers and removing them from the roads before they cause
injury.” Commonwealth v. Basinger, 982 A.2d 121, 124-125 (Pa. Super.
2009) (citation omitted). This is why the legislature provided for the
standard of “reasonable suspicion” rather than the heightened standard of
“probable cause” in Section 6308(b) of the Motor Vehicle Code as the
threshold for conducting a lawful traffic stop. See id., at 125. See also
Commonwealth v. Brown, 64 A.3d 1101, 1105 (Pa. Super. 2013) (“A
police officer has the authority to stop a vehicle when he or she has
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reasonable suspicion that a violation of the vehicle code has taken place, for
the purpose of obtaining necessary information to enforce the provisions of
the code.”) (emphasis omitted).
The standard for establishing reasonable suspicion is as follows.
[T]he officer must articulate specific observations which, in
conjunction with reasonable inferences derived from those
observations, led him reasonably to conclude, in light of his
experience, that criminal activity was afoot and that the person
he stopped was involved in that activity. The question of
whether reasonable suspicion existed at the time [the officer
conducted the stop] must be answered by examining the totality
of the circumstances to determine whether the officer who
initiated the stop had a particularized and objective basis for
suspecting the individual stopped. Therefore, the fundamental
inquiry of a reviewing court must be an objective one, namely,
whether the facts available to the officer at the moment of the
[stop] warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that the
action taken was appropriate.
Basinger, 982 A.2d at 125 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted;
some brackets added).
Here, Trooper Riggle articulated specific observations, which led him to
conclude that the driver of the vehicle may have been involved in criminal
activity, namely driving under the influence in violation of 75 Pa.C.S.A. §
3802. He possessed reasonable suspicion to conduct a lawful traffic stop.
As a trooper for twenty-one years, with a familiarity of observing
people driving under the influence, Trooper Riggle testified that Acosta’s
erratic driving, set forth in detail above, led him to suspect impaired driving.
“[E]rratic driving provides a sufficient, reasonable basis to support an
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investigatory stop.” Commonwealth v. Hamme, 583 A.2d 1245, 1247
(Pa. Super. 1990) (citation omitted).
The suppression court’s legal conclusion that Trooper Riggle failed to
possess reasonable suspicion to conduct a lawful traffic stop is erroneous.
Accordingly, we reverse the order.
Order reversed. Case remanded for proceedings consistent with this
memorandum. Jurisdiction relinquished.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 11/13/2014
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