{"id":8282,"date":"2013-05-19T10:50:39","date_gmt":"2013-01-26T03:00:03","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T19:27:16","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=8282","title":{"rendered":"PA: State completely failed to justify a protective weapons search of car"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defendant was stopped driving a car with allegedly overtinted windows, and he lowered the windows when asked to talk to the officer and presented his license. There were no articulable facts given at all to support a Long<\/a> protective sweep of the vehicle for weapons because defendant did or said nothing to suggest he was a danger or armed. Commonwealth v. Cartagena<\/a>, 2013 PA Super 12, 63 A.3d 294 (2013):<\/p>\n

In contrast to the Commonwealth’s recitation of the facts, our review of the record in this case reveals that it is significantly lacking in articulable facts that would allow us to reverse the suppression court’s decision. The entirety of Officer Johncola’s testimony comprises little more than six pages of transcript, with the direct examination conducted by the Commonwealth covering just over three pages. The suppression hearing transcript contains no information about Officer Johncola’s level of training or experience in conducting traffic stops (or even years of service) and is devoid of any testimony that Officer Johncola believed, based on his training and experience, that Cartagena possessed a weapon or had access to a weapon in his vehicle. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 30-31; Long<\/a>, 463 U.S. at 1049-50; see also In re O.J., 958 A.2d at 563 (officer testifying that police “normally” conduct a protective weapons search of a vehicle where they observe furtive hand movements during a stop, as “that behavior creates a fear that a weapon may be located where the movements occurred.”). There was also no testimony describing the neighborhood in which this stop occurred, i.e., there is no testimony that it was a high-crime area; only that police stopped Cartagena in the 100 block of Lehigh Avenue in Philadelphia. … Furthermore, there is no indication that Cartagena did not immediately stop for the police …; that the police saw any weapons in the vehicle prior to conducting a the protective search (see Long<\/a>, 463 U.S. at 1051; …); or that he made any movements that caused Officer Johncola to believe that Cartagena was in possession of a weapon or that Cartagena posed a safety threat ….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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