The secondary-screening area is further than Howe got. Yes, he was smoking a marijuana cigarette, and worse, he wasn't wearing his seat belt. But Howe and his friends apparently realized too late that they were at a sobriety checkpoint. Howe's attempts to quickly put out his joint while fastening his seatbelt were observed and, according to the State Police report, deemed furtive.  The version of events told by State Police continued as follows: Howe leapt out of the window of the truck, punched an officer in the face, and then attempted to flee. He ran only a short distance before being apprehended, handcuffed, and transported to the State Police barracks.  Later, at the barracks, he became unresponsive. After being transported to Lawrence General Hospital, he was pronounced dead.

That's quite different from the series of events presented by the attorney representing Howe's family, based on testimony from the driver, an eyewitness who ended up not facing any charges whatsoever. In this version of the story, Howe was "helped" out of the window by the 10 to20 troopers present at the roadblock, rather than his jumping out and trying to elude them.

Additionally, there was another, neutral witness to the arrest. As it happens, the North Andover checkpoint was located right outside the offices of the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune newspaper. And, by some coincidence, a photographer who decided to workl ate that night happened to leave for home at almost the exact moment Howe was being arrested. This photographer was able to document the last 10 minutes of the arrest in a series of 43 photos, although he missed the initial take down.

The bulk of the photos show Howe face down, lying on his stomach, with his arms handcuffed behind his back, not moving. In many of the photos,four officers are on him; one on each arm, one on his legs, and one kneeling on his back, maintaining a choke hold on him throughout the entire arrest. Howe was eventually allowed to get up, slowly, only to collapse as he was led to a cruiser for transport. At this point, the driver eyewitness was ordered to turn around, and was himself led to a different cruiser for transport.

Beware. Once in the secondary-screening area,you are essentially "pawned" by the police. You are now being detained, because the initial-screening officer thought there was reasonable suspicion that you were DUI, a/k/a OUI in Massachusetts. And don't expect the police to get any friendlier: you are no longer merely being asked a few questions in an interview — you are instead being interrogated as a suspect. And your very body — or rather your blood —is the crime scene.

Clearly, by sending you on to the secondary-screening area, the police suspicions have escalated, and so will the intensity of the investigation, as will your chances of being arrested. Though no official statistics have been released to the public, data concerning one recent sobriety check point in Boston — which screened more than 1000 vehicles — have been obtained and examined by the Phoenix. In this one instance, the arrest rate increased from one percent at the initial checkpoint to almost 40 percent at the secondary-screening area.

Once in that secondary-screening area, the police control both the environment and the narrative. Your rights are extremely restricted (it can be even worse in other states, where they can legally restrain you while the police draw your blood); you will likely be asked to submit to a series of controversial tests known as the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST, which are not mandatory, but refusal to take them will likely lead to an arrest), and your access to legal counsel is disallowed until the investigation is completed.