DA can’t use 8 pounds of meth found in woman’s car as evidence against her, Pa. court says

Patriot-News - 9/15/2021

Dauphin County prosecutors can’t use 8 pounds of methamphetamine found in a woman’s car as evidence against her because a state trooper had no probable cause to suspect she was committing a crime, a state appeals court has ruled.

The Superior Court order overturns a county judge’s decision that allowed that meth, plus 10 grams of fentanyl that also were discovered in Deanna Savino’s car, to be used to convict her on drug delivery charges.

The case hinges on what Trooper Jordan Lantzy did when he saw Savino’s car legally parked on the shoulder of Routes 11/15 on the afternoon of May 28, 2018.

“Trooper Lantzy…testified that he always stops when he sees a vehicle pulled over on the side of the road to check if the driver is okay,” Judge Anne E. Lazarus wrote in the state court’s opinion. Lantzy stopped his cruiser behind Savino’s car and activated its emergency lights.

Savino wasn’t OK, the trooper found.

After checking to determine there were no warrants for her arrest, he walked to her car and found Savino slumped over with a half-eaten hamburger sitting in her lap.

“Trooper Lantzy testified that Savino was unresponsive and that he believed she was possibly overdosing on drugs and in need of medical assistance,” Lazarus wrote. The officer called for EMS.

Lantzy testified that when was able to awaken Savino she couldn’t initially speak in sentences. Eventually, during an interview recorded on his cruiser’s dash cam, Savino told Lantzy “she had taken a white powdery substance about ten minutes before getting in the car to drive,” the state judge noted.

When Lantzy asked if there were any drugs in her car, Savino told him there were some in a black backpack, where the meth and fentanyl were found, the Superior Court opinion states. Lantzy didn’t secure a warrant for the search of Savino’s car, Lazarus noted.

She noted that a blood sample taken from Savino tested positive for amphetamine and oxycodone.

Savino, 51, of Glassgow, Beaver County, was convicted of the drug charges last year after a nonjury trial before county Judge Scott A. Evans, who later sentenced her to 7 ½ to 15 years in prison.

She then appealed to the Superior Court, challenging Evans’ refusal to suppress the drug evidence Lantzy found after checking on her welfare.

In overturning Evans’ decision, Lazarus, citing prior state Supreme Court decisions, found that Lantzy had no reason to suspect that Savino was in distress or what committing a crime when he saw her parked along the highway.

“At the time Trooper Lantzy activated his emergency lights and pulled behind Savino’s vehicle, he admittedly did not perceive any need for assistance,” Lazarus wrote. “Trooper Lantzy only recognized Savino’s need for assistance after he effected a seizure (by turning on his cruiser’s lights) and approached her car window.”

“Thus, we are constrained to hold that Trooper Lantzy’s seizure of Savino was not justified under the public servant exception, and, therefore, the evidence obtained as a result of that seizure should have been suppressed at trial,” the state judge found.

Without the drug evidence, there is no case against Savino. County prosecutors can appeal the Superior Court’s ruling to the state Supreme Court.