PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – The state attorney general’s office will appeal a judge’s decision to dismiss drunken-driving charges against five people arrested at sobriety checkpoints.

Portsmouth District Court Judge Sharon DeVries ruled in November the checkpoints were unconstitutional because city police failed to give seven days’ advance notice of the campaign, as recommended by the attorney general’s own guidelines on sobriety checkpoints.

She dismissed driving while intoxicated charges against Michael Hunt, 50, of Berwick, Maine, and four other people arrested during the two-day checkpoint campaign last July. Three other people pleaded guilty to reduced charges of reckless driving.

Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams asked the attorney general’s office to appeal. Friday, Reams said the office had agreed.

In her decision, DeVries cited two state Supreme Court cases and the attorney general’s guidelines, which say advance notice and “aggressive public information efforts” are essential to making sobriety checkpoints effective and legal.

City police sent out a news release dated two days before the checkpoints took effect. A newspaper in Dover published an article the same day the roadblocks went up.

Reams argued the guidelines were not mandatory and the shorter notice period was not unconstitutional.

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Information from: Portsmouth Herald, http://www.seacoastonline.com

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