Commonwealth v. Shaheen

HOFFMAN, Judge:

The instant appeal raises one question: whether an issuing authority1 has the power to issue a search warrant for premises outside of his magisterial district, but within the same county. We conclude that an issuing authority has such authority.

Appellant contends that because there were no extant criminal proceedings against him at the time of the search, the warrant could be issued only by an issuing authority in whose district the search was to take place. This analysis errs in two respects. First it incorrectly equates the phrase “a criminal proceeding”, used in Rule 21(a),…