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Commonwealth v. Spieler11/30/2005
1 Appellant, Robert Spieler, appeals from the judgment of sentence imposed on September 7, 2004, by the Honorable Donald E. Machen of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, following Appellant's conviction of two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or controlled substance. Specifically, Appellant asks us to decide whether the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence recovered after a traffic stop. The trial court, sitting as a suppression court, concluded that the police officer's testimony describing his observations of Appellant's operation of his vehicle was sufficient to establish that the officer had probable cause to justify the stop. Upon review, we conclude that the trial court properly denied Appellant's motion to suppress, and, accordingly, we affirm the judgment of sentence.
2 The relevant facts and procedural history of this case are as follows. At approximately 11:30 p.m. on December 26, 2003, Pittsburgh Police Officer Talib Ghafoor was on duty and traveling east on Penn Avenue towards the intersection of North Negley Avenue when he observed that traffic was backing up around the 5500 block area. (Notes of Testimony ("N.T."), 9/7/04, at 3, 5). Officer Ghafoor drove forward to ascertain the reason for the backup, and noticed a white truck in front of the backed up traffic with Appellant in the driver's seat. (Id. at 3). Officer Ghafoor pulled alongside the truck and shined his police cruiser light onto Appellant in order to draw Appellant's attention to get him to move on, at which time Officer Ghafoor noticed that Appellant's face was "beet red" and that he looked confused. (Id. at 3-4). Appellant then moved his car forward, but stopped at the traffic light at the intersection of North Negley and Penn Avenue even though the light was green. (Id. at 4). The light turned red and then green again, while Appellant continued to sit at the intersection in his truck. (Id. at 4). Appellant eventually did proceed through a green light and drove for another half block, during which time Officer Ghafoor observed Appellant's vehicle weave in and out of his lane of traffic several times, all without using appropriate signals. (Id. at 4, 7). At this point, Officer Ghafoor activated his lights and siren and stopped Appellant's vehicle because he was concerned that Appellant might have a medical condition, and on the basis of "a hunch that maybe something was wrong". (Id. at 4-6). Approximately five minutes elapsed between the time the officer initially observed Appellant and when he stopped him. (Id. at 5).
3 Officer Ghafoor approached Appellant and noticed that a smell of alcohol was emanating from him, at which point Officer Ghafoor and another officer administered three field sobriety tests. (Id. at 14). Appellant seemed very confused about the instructions he received from the officers regarding the field sobriety tests, and stated that he could not do the tests and refused to complete the last test. (Id.). As a result, Officer Ghafoor arrested Appellant for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or controlled substance, and took him to the police station for a blood alcohol intoxilizer test which resulted in readings of .221% and .225%. (Id.). Notably, Appellant was not given a citation for violating the Motor Vehicle Code ("MVC"). (Id. at 6).
4 Appellant was subsequently arrested for two counts of driving under the influence. Prior to trial, Appellant filed a motion to suppress all evidence which had been obtained during the traffic stop on the basis that there had been insufficient probable cause to justify the stop. On September 7, 2004, the trial court held a suppression hearing, after which it denied Appellant'
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