May an Officer Stop a Car to Serve an Occupant with a Subpoena or Other Civil Process?

Suppose that Victor Victim was the victim of a non-fatal shooting. Law enforcement has charged Dan Defendant with the crime, but Victor is not enthusiastic about testifying against Dan and has not cooperated with the police and the prosecutor in the run-up to the trial. The State has issued a subpoena to compel Victor’s attendance. Olga Officer is out looking for Victor when she sees him driving by. May Olga stop Victor’s car in order to serve him with the subpoena? It happens. The practice of stopping drivers to effect service of a subpoena was discussed in Lewis v. Arnold, 2019 WL 6188624 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 17, 2019) (unpublished). The case arose when officers pulled a man over at least partly to serve him with a subpoena. The service was unwelcome and the man assaulted one of the officers. In the course of the resulting criminal trial, the officer who was assaulted testified that he asked his fellow officers to pull the defendant over “because he intended to serve him with the subpoena.” He further testified that he “believed that he could lawfully order the brief detention of [the defendant’s] vehicle to serve the subpoena.” During the defense case, a retired officer testified that “officers do stop cars to serve the driver with a subpoena.” See also Doss v. Young, 2011 WL 13235040 (W.D. Tex. May 27, 2011) (unpublished) (noting that an officer stopped an individual “to serve a subpoena” and suggesting in passing that this was “routine police work”). Although [...]