Cooper v. State

³⁹³ Lowe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. On March 28, 1977, a jury of the Criminal Court of Baltimore found appellant, Clarence Cooper, 1 guilty of unlawfully conspiring to violate the controlled dangerous substances laws of Maryland with respect to the possession with intent to distribute heroin. On April 26, 1977, he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. He has raised two arguments here.

First, he contends that the trial court erred in denying his pretrial motion to suppress evidence seized in a search of his apartment because the affidavit supporting the warrant did not provide probable cause. Second, appellant argues under the Best Evidence Rule that the court erred in admitting into evidence a photocopy of a notebook page. We find both issues without merit and will affirm. probable cause In Henson v. State, 236 Md. 518, 521 (1964), the Court of Appeals stated: “Probable cause, which is less than certainty or demonstration but more than suspicion or possibility, is to be determined by the judge or justice who issues the warrant, and if a prudent and cautious man would be justified from the facts presented to show its existence in believing that the offense had been or was being committed, the warrant properly may be issued.” In the present case, the application for a warrant to search 11 Greenbury Court (appellant’s car, residence and persons found therein) was supported by a primary affidavit of a Maryland State Trooper qualified as an expert in the Narcotic Division. The affidavit incorporated by reference three prior affidavits which had been submitted in support of an electronic surveillance and two wiretap applications in the ³⁹⁴ investigation of the same drug operation. 2 The orders granting those three petitions were also incorporated into the primary affidavit.

Our independent review of all four affidavits reveals that the investigating officers involved in the wiretaps and electronic surveillance were also experts in the narcotic field. The informants used were qualified in the affidavits as reliable sources of information. Each informant had a prior “track” record of accuracy and dependability. The information presented by the four affidavits, from which probable cause had to be drawn, shows that the head of the “Cooper” drug operation was William A. Cooper.

Reliable sources noted that, as head of the network, he had at times directly distributed drugs from his home. On October 22,1975, William A. Cooper suffered a broken neck and back in a car accident which confined him to the hospital. He continued to deal from his hospital room, and endeavored to retain the reins of power within the organization. On December 19, 1975, the investigating officers were told “WILLIAM A. COOPER had a partner in his business known as RONNIE PURCELL aka RONNIE COOPER.” Ronnie Cooper (appellant) told a police informant that “he handles all of the heroin on the east side of the city from WILLIAM A. COOPER and that COOPER was still running the operation from his hospital room ... and that BOOTSIE (ANNA MAE JONES) [William A. Cooper’s mother] was doing most of the running since WILLIAM was laid up.” On February 17, 1976, the two detectives on the investigation asked for the first wiretap order.

Their affidavit stated that the Cooper operation was undergoing a change of command. Before William A. Cooper’s accident, the heroin was disbursed only by the command of William A. Cooper. The detectives stated that William A. Cooper was “losing control of his organization to his mother, ANNA MAE JONES aka' “BOOTSIE” and RONNIE COOPER aka RONNIE PURCELL aka CLARENCE GLEN COOPER.” ³⁹⁵ The affidavit supports this statement with conversations recorded (during the electronic surveillance) between William A. Cooper and different members of the organization. Information from an informant also revealed that Ronnie Cooper had called a meeting of the entire family involved in the operation, and that they had decided to cut William A. Cooper out of the business.

Appellant told the informant that any future problems or needs would have to go through him or through Anna Mae Jones. The supporting affidavit before the Circuit Court for Baltimore County for a second wiretap order, made by the investigating Maryland State Trooper, stated: “RONNIE PURCELL alias RONNIE COOPER alias CLARENCE GLEN COOPER resides with his paramour, DENISE THORNTON — at Greenbury Court, Woodlawn, Baltimore County, Maryland.” It also stated “that since the raid (March 9, 1976) on her [Anna Mae Jones] apartment, RONNIE (PURCELL) and DENISE (THORNTON) have been keeping a close watch on the parking lot from the back of their apartment,” but that she (Anna Mae Jones) is “still conducting her routine business of trafficking Controlled Dangerous Substances.” The primary supporting affidavit of the application for the search warrant details the circumstances leading up to that request. A delivery of heroin from New York was made on May 5, 1976, by a known courier for the operation from New York to Baltimore. The affiant and another State trooper observed appellant driving the courier and another passenger to the address of Anna Mae Jones.

All three exited the vehicle and went to the car trunk. Appellant removed a plastic hanging clothes bag and a brown paper grocery bag which he handed to the courier. The courier then entered the Jones’ residence. Appellant and the other passenger drove directly to 11 Greenbury Court and parked the car.

The officers observed appellant “exit the driver seat and open the trunk while looking around in a suspicious manner.” Appellant “took a small brown bag from the trunk and close[d] same.” He and the male passenger then entered appellant’s residence. ³⁹⁶ Judge H. Kemp MacDaniel (now of this Court) reviewed the foregoing facts in the application for the search and seizure warrant. He found that probable cause did exist to believe that the laws relating to the illegal manufacturing, distribution and possession with intent to distribute controlled dangerous substances, were being violated at the address in question. Md. Ann. Code art. 27, §§ 286-287 (1976 Repl. Vol.) (§ 286 amended 1978 Supp.).

At appellant’s pretrial suppression hearing, Judge Mary Arabian similarly concluded that Judge MacDaniel had adequate facts before him to determine that more than a mere “suspicion” existed that drugs or paraphernalia were at 11 Greenbury Court. We agree. A drug pick up had just been completed, one stop was made at Anna Mae Jones’ before appellant proceeded to 11 Greenbury Court. Parcels were removed from the car at both points.

The officers assigned to the case had watched the drug ring over a period of months. They knew the “routine” manner of operation had been in flux during the power shift to Anna Mae Jones and appellant. As appellant conceded at oral argument, since Anna Mae Jones’ home had been raided on March 9, 1976, and she was conscious of being watched, it was less likely that s|he would store the drugs at her residence. While the appellant does not think that point added support to the probable cause issue, we disagree.

It is another fact that could be weighed in determining that more than a mere suspicion existed that appellant might have controlled dangerous substances or paraphernalia in violation of sections 286 and 287 of article 27. The drugs had been brought from New York; they had to be at either one or both of the locations where stops were made. That there are two possibilities does not so divide the probability of either that one or the other would be exempted from the reach of a search warrant. See Andresen v. State, 24 Md. App. 128, 173-174 (1975), aff’d on other grounds, 427 U. S. 463 (1976).

Notwithstanding his concession that it was less likely that the drugs would be stored at Anna Mae Jones’, appellant asserted that probable cause to search appellant’s premises ³⁹⁷ at 11 Greenbury Court was still lacking because none of the