PA Superior Court, In the Interest of: O.J., No. 310 EDA 2007

The Commonwealth appealed from an order suppressing drugs seized from a motor vehicle pursuant to a protective search for weapons conducted after a lawful traffic stop.

O.J., a minor, moved to suppress drug evidence found when police officers conducted a protective weapons search of the center console of his vehicle. The Commonwealth argued that the protective nighttime weapons search was warranted based upon O.J.’s dangerous and evasive driving behavior and rapid hand movements over the console. The lower court suppressed the evidence based on a conclusion that the weapons search was unnecessary because Appellee and the passenger were secured in the patrol car when the search was conducted.

The Superior Court concluded that the officer’s protective search was constitutionally valid as based upon articulable facts supporting a belief that Appellee may have secreted a weapon in the area searched. Those facts included: the vehicular stop occurred at night, Appellee had been driving dangerously and initially refused to heed police efforts to stop his car, Appellee’s rapid and furtive hand movements over the console indicated that he may have been hiding a weapon in that location, the console had been left partially open, and the search in question was specifically confined to the area where the hand movements had occurred.

Opinion: In the Interest of: O.J. No. 310 EDA 2007