Perry v. Com.

Summary

The Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed the Court of Appeals' judgment upholding the denial of James Perry's motion to suppress and his conviction for possession of PCP. The court held that the right result for the wrong reason doctrine was properly applied because the record supported the Commonwealth's newly-advanced argument that the trooper had probable cause to arrest Perry before the pat-down, and no additional factual development was necessary; the court expressly narrowed the principle from Eason v. Eason that failure to argue below bars application of the doctrine. Because probable cause to arrest existed independently of the search, the pat-down was a lawful search incident to arrest under the Fourth Amendment.