Today, my client, a 20 year old man from Darby, Pennsylvania, pled guilty to one count Possession With Intent to Deliver Cocaine before the Honorable Gregory M. Mallon in the Media courthouse. My client faced a mandatory sentence of two (2) years incarceration for this charge. He recieved an intermediate punishment sentence of three (3) months incarceration to be served on 45 consecutive weekends and 3 months of electronic home monitoring followed by 17 months probation. The original offer from the Delaware County District Attorney's Office in this case was 6-23 months incarceration. However, once my office filed a suppression motion, this opened up negotiations with the district attorney's office for a more lenient sentence.
This case arose when the Yeadon Police Department initiated a pedestrian stop on my client. My client fled police officers and entered a Darby residence. The police surrounded the home and requested consent from the owner to search the premises. The owner allegedly allowed the police to search the residence. Police found my client baracaded in the basement bathroom with 9.9 grams of cocaine, along with hundreds of baggies, $82.00 cash and two (2) cell phones.
You may ask, how did you get your client thissentence reduction with the two year school zone mandatory looming ove his head? My strategy in this case was based around a motion for a suppression of evidence for a violation of my client's Fourth Amendment rights.
There were two constitutional violations that occurred prior to the search of my client which revealed the drugs. First, in the affadavit of probable cause the Yeadon Police stated they initiated a "pedestrian stop" on my client. This is an illegal stop lacking in reasonable suspicion. A "stop and frisk" by police, known as a "Terry stop" from the United States Supreme Court case Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968) must be supported by reasonable suspicion. If the police lack reasonable suspicion to stop a citizen, all evidence derived from said stop must be suppressed as "the fruit of the poisonous tree." The "fruit of the poisonous tree" is a hallmark of the American judicial system. In other words, police need to have a reasonable suspicion to stop and search a citizen, if they do not, all of the "bad" evidence must be suppressed and will not be admissible in court.
The second constitutional violation that occured was the the search of the residence performed without a warrant. Although, police may perform a warrantless search of a residence if consent is given by an occupant of the home, this consent must be freely and voluntarily given and not coerced. I interviewed the homeowner in this case and he said the police told him that "he better allow them to search the home or they would get a warrant and take it anyway." I belive this to be a coerced search and would not consitute voluntary consent of the homeowner Based on these legal strategies, I managed to have the DA's office compromise and reduce the sentence significantly from the two year mandatory.
You may ask yourself, why would someone plead guilty when the search was unlawful and the evidence could be suppressed? Historically, judges in Delaware County have sided with the District Attorney's Office on suppression issues. I have no statistical data to back this up, but ask any attorney in Media and they will tell you that suppression is a waste of time in Delco. I can verify that the judges will rubber stamp the DA's office on suppression issues. Second it is up to the client whether to plead guilty or push the suppression issue and take the case to trial. This is not the attorney's decision. If you were in the defendant's shoes and are staring at 2 years you would probably take the deal to do 3 months worth of weekends.
Please take away the following from this article, it is important to find an attorney that can spot these legal issues and is willing to keep pressing to get you a better deal. In this particular case, we had to go back to court many times and wait around the Media courthouse all morning, for status/scheduling conferences. Persistence is key in Delaware County.
If you or a loved one are facing drug charges in Pennsylvania contact Pennsylvania Criminal Defense Lawyer, Jason R.Antoine.
