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Commonwealth v. Rastogi2/5/2003
Anil L. Rastogi appeals from the order entered March 7, 2002 in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County denying Rastogi's petition for a writ of certiorari to the Philadelphia Municipal Court. Rastogi was arrested on October 15, 1999, at a sobriety checkpoint in Philadelphia and charged with driving under the influence . At trial in Philadelphia Municipal Court, he filed a motion to suppress physical evidence before Judge Linda F. Anderson. Judge Anderson denied the motion to suppress and found Rastogi guilty. Rastogi then filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the Court of Common Pleas, claiming that the sobriety checkpoint was administered in an unconstitutional manner. Judge Joyce S. Kean denied the petition, and Rastogi appeals. We affirm.
Essentially, Rastogi claims that the administration of the sobriety checkpoint failed to pass constitutional muster for two reasons. The first is that the data upon which the roadblock was selected was stale, being approximately two years old. The second is that notice was inadequate because although a press release was sent to 40 different television stations and newspapers, there was no evidence that any in fact published the notice. Both claims fail.
1. The staleness claim.
Rastogi asserts that the Philadelphia police officer improperly relied on information two to six years old when they decided where to place the roadblock. To carry its burden to establish admissibility, in Municipal Court the Commonwealth presented the testimony of Lieutenant Jerry Green, who is the project coordinator of Philadelphia's sobriety checkpoint program. He testified that he, rather than the officers on the street, determines where a roadblock will be placed. He stated that in choosing where to put the roadblock, he looked at statistics compiled by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Lieutenant Green explained that although the statistics were between two and six years old, they were the latest then available. He also stated that for confirmation he looked at Philadelphia Police Department accident investigation statistics for the years 1996 and 1997, which showed 80 and 101 arrests for those years respectively on Allegheny Avenue. Because the vast majority of the alcohol-related accidents and DUI arrests occurred in the eastern portion of Allegheny Avenue, he chose the 2100 block of that street. Similarly, because nearly half the alcohol-related accidents had occurred between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., he scheduled the checkpoint during those hours.
Because stopping and detaining drivers at a roadblock seizes the car and its occupants, roadblocks are restrained by the protections against unreasonable seizures found in the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, as well as in Article 1, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Commonwealth v. Blouse, 611 A.2d 1177, 1178 (Pa. 1992). To avoid unreasonable seizures, roadblocks must be established in compliance with the following guidelines:
"First, the very decision to hold a drunk-driver roadblock, as well as the decision as to its time and place, should be matters reserved for prior administrative approval, thus removing the determination of those matters from the discretion of police officers in the field. In this connection it is essential that the route selected for the roadblock be one which, based on local experience, is likely to be traveled by intoxicated drivers. The time of the roadblock should be governed by the same consideration. Additionally, the question of which vehicles to stop at the roadblock should not be left to the unfettered discretion of police officers at the scene, but instead should be in accordance with
Page 1 2 3 Pennsylvania DUI Attorneys
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