# Commonwealth v. Cook

> Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · July 23, 1999 · 558 Pa. 50

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9692069

## Case

- **Full name:** COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Gregory Spencer COOK, Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** July 23, 1999
- **Citations:** 558 Pa. 50; 735 A.2d 673; 1999 Pa. LEXIS 2123
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Saylor
- **Judges:** Flaherty, Zappala, Cappy, Castille, Nigro, Newman, Saylor
- **Cited by:** 212 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9692069

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- stating that although mere hunches on the part of an officer are insufficient to meet this burden, “a combination of innocent facts, when taken together, may warrant further investigation by the police officer.”
- noting that, in Commonwealth v. Hicks, 434 Pa. 153, 253 A.2d 276 (1969) "this court embraced the reasonable suspicion exception to the warrant requirement [of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968),] ... and [s]ince Hicks, Pennsylvania courts have cons…
- stating that circumstances which alone would be insufficient may combine to show reasonable -9- J. S06038/19 suspicion
- stating that circumstances which alone would be insufficient may combine to show reasonable suspicion

## Opinion text

SAYLOR, Justice,
concurring.
I agree with the majority that the contraband abandoned by Appellant during his flight from police was properly recovered and admitted into evidence at trial. I write only to note my agreement with the logic of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 625-26 , 111 S.Ct. 1547, 1550 , 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991)(holding that a seizure did not occur until the police physically restrained a fleeing suspect), and of Mr. Justice Castille’s dissenting opinion in Commonwealth v. Matos, 543 Pa. 449, 473 , 672 A.2d 769, 781 (1996)(Castille, J., dissenting)(stating that “[t]hat a person voluntarily chooses to flee from the ‘mere presence’ of a police officer should not immunize that person when he abandons contraband, weapons, or other evidence during the course of his flight and a police officer’s pursuit”). Thus, I believe that, in the absence of unlawful conduct on the part of the police, and even under the paradigm of a mere encounter, abandoned property, as such, should be subject to lawful recovery by the authorities.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9692069. Public record. Not legal advice.