Com. v. Santner

• Decision Date: 15 September 1982
• Citation: 454 A.2d 24,308 Pa.Super. 67
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Floyd SANTNER, M.D., Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 24

454 A.2d 24

308 Pa.Super. 67

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Floyd SANTNER, M.D., Appellant.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Dec. 7, 1981.

Filed July 9, 1982.

Reargument Denied Sept. 15, 1982.

Burton A. Rose, Philadelphia, for appellant.

Kristine F. Hughey, Asst. Dist. Atty., Media, for Commonwealth, appellee.

Before SPAETH, MONTGOMERY and LIPEZ, JJ.

SPAETH, Judge:

This is an appeal from a judgment of sentence for violations of the Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act. 35 Pa.P.S. § 780-101 et seq. Appellant, a medical doctor, was convicted by a jury of dispensing controlled substances to drug dependent persons and of dispensing controlled substances not in the good faith course of professional conduct. 35 Pa.P.S. § 780-113(a)(13) & (14). Appellant argues, among other matters, that the lower court erred in denying his pre-trial motion to suppress evidence obtained from his office because "the search warrants were defective in that they were overly broad in describing the items to be seized and therefore constituted unlawful general search warrants." Appellant's Brief at 6. ¹ We agree, and therefore reverse and grant appellant a new trial.

The particularity clause ² of the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution provides in pertinent part: ³

[N]o warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause ... and particularly describing the ... things to be seized.

The United States Supreme Court has stated that "[t]he requirement that warrants shall particularly describe the things to be seized makes general searches under them impossible and prevents the seizure of one thing under a warrant describing another." Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192, 196, 48 S.Ct. 74, 76, 72 L.Ed. 231 (1927). The "general searches" referred to by the Court represented a practice "which has been condemned by Americans since Colonial Days." United States v. Abrams, 615 F.2d 541, 543 (1st Cir.1980). Indeed it was popular dissatisfaction with this practice that lead to the adoption of the fourth amendment:

It is familiar history that indiscriminate searches and seizures conducted under the authority of "general warrants" were the immediate evils that motivated the framing and adoption of the Fourth Amendment. Indeed, as originally proposed in the House of Representatives, the draft contained only one clause which directly imposed limitations on the issuance of warrants, but imposed no express restrictions on warrantless searches or seizures. As it was ultimately adopted, however, the amendment contained two separate clauses, the first protecting the basic right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and the second requiring that warrants be particular and supported by probable cause.

Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 583-4, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 1378-9, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980) (footnotes omitted). ⁴

A warrant is unconstitutional under the fourth amendment for its overbreadth "if it is broader than can be justified by the probable cause on which the warrant is based." LaFave, 2 Search and Seizure 97 (1978). We believe that an examination of the warrant and the affidavit here demonstrates that the warrant authorized a far broader search than was justified by the probable cause.

The warrant identified the items to be seized as "All Patient/Physician records and charts. All ledgers and bookkeeping pertaining to patients and visits." The affidavit accompanying the warrant stated the following in the "probable cause" section:

Within the past 6 or 7 months, numerous complaints were received from concerned citizens in the neighborhood that there was an inordinate amount of traffic by people in their teens, at the above location, and these people would go into the above persons [sic ] offices come out, congregate on the street, and would lay on the lawns and sidewalks in the area. The complainants indicated that they believed that the young people were taking some type of drugs. On numerous occassions [sic ] the above officers conducted surveillances at the above location. On days of surveillances the above officers observed many people, some being in their teens. Many of the people in our opinion and experiences as narcotic officers, did appear to be under the influence of some type of drugs. Our surveillances further revealed that almost ninety-five percent of the people that entered and then left the above location went immediately to the Long Lane Court Pharmacy where, as we observed, the prescription written by the above person was tendered to and filled by the pharmacist. We also observed known drug users to this department, those being John Searle, Moe McNally, Greg Searle. On or about the first week of February, 1978, officer John Falls and other officers from this narcotic unit interviewed Mr. Walter Quinn and Raymond Freeberry, who are pharmacists at the Long Lane pharmacy. They permitted us to examine their records. Our personal examination of the records revealed the following: An excessive amount of class 11 drugs being prescribed by Dr. Floyd A. Santner, for example from February 1, 1978 to February 24, 1978 15,901 Quaaludes were dispensed 3,129 Ritalins were dispensed, 903 Percodans were dispensed and 1,023 of other class 11 drugs were dispensed. The total of class 11 drugs dispensed in this 24 day period were 20,966. A check of other records showed that approximately 20,000 Quaaludes are being prescribed by Dr. Santner in an average months [sic ] time.

A check was made with Dr. Philip Ingaglio, who is the current Chairman of the board of physicians, who handles physician licensure for the State of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ingaglio indicated that the drugs prescribed were, and the quantities prescribed as set forth above were outrageously large. Dr. Ingaglio also felt that this type of practice was not [in] keeping within accepted medical standards. A check with 3 other pharmacies in the same general area revealed that the above quantities were also outrageously high.

The above defendant also advertises, on his billing literature, a practice with a Dr. John Sardar M.D. A check of the records in Harrisburg, Penna. concerning the licensing of physicians indicates that Dr. John Sardar is not licensed in the state of Penna. to practice as a physician, and has never been licensed to practice. State Drug Investigation unit agent, Ester Kiah, went to the above location as a patient several times and each of the times was prescribed a class 2 drug. On February 27, 1978 the above officers interviewed a reliable confidential informant, who has given these officers reliable information in the past, which has led to arrests and convictions, and he related the following.

On several occassions [sic ] he was a patient at Dr. Santner's office and he did receive Quaaludes, which he was not given a written prescription for, but was told to go to the Long Lane pharmacy to pick them up, which he did.

On February 27, 1978 the above officers interviewed one Hogan Jolly and Calvin Blackwell who are both patients of Dr. Floyd Santner M.D. and they related to these officers that are both drug addicted persons and are currently on methadone programs in the city of Philadelphia. Both are obtaining class 2 drugs from Dr. Santner.

On February 27, 1978 the above officers also interviewed one Cheryl Rementer and she told us that she went to Dr. Santner last year, when she was 15 years of age and told Dr. Santner that she had problems sleeping at night and Dr. Santner prescribed Quaaludes for her. She stated that she went there because her friends told her its [sic ] easy to get Quaaludes from Dr. Santner.

Based on the foregoing we have reason to believe that the above person at the above location has violated the laws of Penna. dealing with the licensed practice of medicine and the manner in which the practice is to be conducted in that he has conspired with John Sardar and Harrison G. Stone and to allow them to practice without a license, and based on the quantity of traffic into and from the above office, by surveillance, our examination of pharmacy records and our conversation with the referenced physicians, we believe the above Dr. Santner, is prescribing controlled substances for known addicts and controlled substances not being for maintainance for their addiction. These controlled substances or other drugs being prescribed are not in good faith in the course of his professional practice.

As may be seen from these allegations, the affidavit identified eight named individuals whom the officers knew or had interviewed; it further identified, although not by name, a class of individuals whose prescriptions were examined at the Long Lane Court Pharmacy; and it specified two periods--February 1978 and "the past 6 or 7 months"--as the periods during which the activity in question had occurred. Despite this specificity, ⁵ the warrant was not restricted either to the files of the eight named individuals, or to the files of the class of individuals whose prescriptions had been examined, or as to time. Instead, it authorized the seizure of all of the patients' "records and charts," and all "ledgers and bookkeeping pertaining to patients," whether the patients were or were not taking any drugs, and whether they were current patients or had not been patients for many years. The extent of this entirely unnecessary overbreadth may be seen by what happened. The executing officers seized some 3,600 files. Only 50 were introduced in evidence at trial.

While the issue appears to be one of first impression in Pennsylvania, similarly overbroad warrants have been found unconstitutional in the federal courts. See United States v. Abrams, supra (warrant did not specify which medical records could be seized and was not limited as to time); United States v. Roche, 614 F.2d 6 (1st Cir.1980) (warrant did not specify that only automobile insurance records could be seized); Application of Lafayette Academy, supra (warrant...