Judge rules evidence inadmissible against former Washington Co. prosecutor charged with DUI
Key evidence against a former Washington County prosecutor accused of driving drunk last year is inadmissible in court because police did not follow procedures gathering it during the traffic stop, a judge ruled Friday.
Washington County Judge Valarie Costanzo determined that North Strabane police did not properly monitor Rachel Wheeler for the required 20-minute period before administering a breathalyzer after pulling her over on June 21.
Township police Officer Daniel Meisel, who pulled over Wheeler and filed the charges, was on a roving DUI patrol when he said he witnessed Wheeler run a red light on Route 19 at Racetrack Road. He called for other township police officers to assist at the scene, but he apparently did not search Wheeler to see if she had any food or drinks in her possession, nor did he monitor her for 20 consecutive minutes before taking her back to the township’s police station for the breath test, which showed Wheeler had a blood-alcohol level above the .08% threshold to legally drive a car in Pennsylvania.
The monitoring period is required so a DUI suspect does not ingest any food or drink – or even vomit or regurgitate alcohol – that could skew the test results.
Wheeler’s defense attorney, Chad Schneider, challenged the evidence during a Dec. 12 suppression hearing, arguing that Meisel handled the traffic stop and breathalyzer examination improperly.
Costanzo wrote in her order Friday that Meisel’s decision to pull Wheeler over after allegedly running a red light might not have been proper because the intersection is in South Strabane – just a few feet from his jurisdiction – and should have been handed over to that municipal police department instead. Costanzo added that Wheeler’s “failure to stop at the red traffic light did not present ‘an immediate clear and present danger to persons or property'” since only Meisel’s police vehicle was nearby at the time, and he was not in imminent danger of being struck.
Constanzo’s order suppressed all evidence gathered from the traffic stop, which will effectively end the prosecution of Wheeler, who was charged with driving under the influence and cited for failure to stop at a red signal. Westmoreland County Assistant District Attorney Anthony Iannamorelli Jr., who was assigned special prosecutor to handle the case, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Wheeler, 38, was finishing her tenure as an assistant district attorney in Washington County and had attended her going away party in Washington when she was stopped on the way back to her North Strabane Township home. Wheeler left her position as a county prosecutor to take a position in the state attorney general’s office, where she is currently working.