Pennsylvania v. Pacheco (majority)
Annotate this CaseThe Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted certiorari review of this appeal to determine whether trial court orders that authorized the disclosure of Appellant David Pacheco’s real-time cell site location information (“CSLI”) were the functional equivalent of search warrants and satisfied the requisites of the Fourth Amendment pursuant to the United States Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Carpenter, 138 S.Ct. 2206 (2018). In 2015, the Narcotics Enforcement Team of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office (“Commonwealth”), working with the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (“DEA”), learned that a large Mexican drug-trafficking organization was smuggling heroin into the United States for distribution, and that Appellant, a resident of Norristown, Pennsylvania, played a significant role in the operation by retrieving the heroin in Atlanta, Georgia, and transporting it to wholesale buyers in New York City. At various times throughout the investigation, the Commonwealth applied for and obtained several orders pursuant to the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act (“Wiretap Act”), 18 Pa.C.S. sections 5701-82. The orders at issue in this appeal were those entered pursuant to Subchapter E of the Wiretap Act, 18 Pa.C.S. sections 5771-75. After review, the Supreme Court held that the challenged orders were the functional equivalent of search warrants and complied with the Fourth Amendment. Accordingly, it affirmed the judgment of the Superior Court, which affirmed Appellant’s judgment of sentence.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.