Beat a Check Point Stop Based on Time
Were you stopped by the police at a check point or road block? If so, that’s the first thing we have to look at in your case. If you’re charged with driving on suspended or DWI due to that stop, the case could be dismissed by beating the stop.
I had a recent Stafford case where this was the key issue.
The Virginia State Bar requires this notice:
NOTE THAT CASE RESULTS DEPEND UPON A VARIETY OF FACTORS THAT ARE UNIQUE TO EACH CASE. PREVIOUS RESULTS DO NOT GUARANTEE OR PREDICT A SIMILAR RESULT IN A FUTURE CASE THAT I UNDERTAKE.
My client was charged with driving on a suspended license. She had been stopped at a routine “traffic safety” check point. The only real issue we had for trial was whether or not the check point was legal. If a road block isn’t legal, any evidence obtained from that road block can’t be used at trial. In other words, if we could beat the road block, we could beat the case.
Here’s the fundamental rule for check points: there must be a written plan that the officers have to follow.But as with all things in the law, that simple rule can get fuzzy.
In this case, the deputy had some written plans. They designated several locations where check points could be conducted. For each location, there was a written plan for how to conduct the check point at that spot.
What they didn’t have in writing before the actual stop was exactly when the check point was to be conducted. AFTER the check point was over, a supervisor signed off on a summary of the event. But there was nothing that specified in writing when the checking detail was to take place.
That was the Commonwealth’s fatal flaw.
The check point rule is extremely rigid. The entire point is to eliminate any discretion on the part of the individual officers. If the actual time of the road block isn’t written down in advance, we can’t be sure if the officers actually had supervisory approval for that specific check point.
The simple solution would be for the Sheriff’s Office to issue a memo before the check point that authorizes it at X location on Y date and Z time. But they didn’t have any such memo in this case.
At the end of the day, my client was found not guilty due to this hole in the check point plan. It may not work in every case, but it certainly helped my client.
Photo by nightthree
