Title: Com. v. Toomey

State: pennsylvania

Issuer: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Document:

321 Pa. Superior Ct. 281 (1983) 468 A.2d 479 COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Philip S. TOOMEY, Appellant. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Argued January 26, 1983. Filed October 21, 1983. Reargument Denied December 30, 1983. Petition for Allowance of Appeal Denied June 13, 1984. Richard Keith Renn, Assistant Public Defender, York, for appellant. *282 Sheryl Ann Dorney, First Assistant District Attorney, York, submitted a brief on behalf of Commonwealth, appellee. Before WICKERSHAM, CIRILLO and WATKINS, JJ. WICKERSHAM, Judge: A York County jury returned verdicts of guilty on charges of burglary and theft against Philip S. Toomey in a trial before the Honorable Emanuel A. Cassimatis. The principle evidence against Toomey was presented by Oscar Buckingham who had been employed as a truck driver for one Richard Kinard for approximately six years. On July 18, 1980, he arrived at his place of work at about ten minutes before 6:00 a.m. He testified: Record at 3-5. Buckingham further testified that he had known Philip Toomey when Toomey had been employed for about five months as a maintenance garage worker for Kinard Trucking. Record at 11. He definitely identified the person that he observed in the office that morning as Mr. Toomey. Record at 12. He described the office area as having boxes, papers, and filing drawers on the floor. He called the police *283 and his employer. He testified that calculators and other office equipment were missing from the various desks and later were found in a box on the floor just inside the office door. Record at 12-14. Ray Wells testified that he is terminal manager for Richard L. Kinard and that, on July 18, 1980, he came to the office building in response to a call from Mr. Buckingham. He testified that when he came into the office area, he found "the outside door was jimmied, broke open." Record at 20. He further testified that he found three calculators, a radio, and a bag full of change that came out of the Coke machine packed in a box. There was $101 missing from the cash box. Record at 21. Wells testified that when he left the terminal the preceding evening at 5:00 p.m., everything was in order and no one had permission to be in the office area at the time indicated. Record at 21-22. Following Toomey's jury conviction, post-verdict motions were filed, briefed, and on August 3, 1981, denied. On September 18, 1981, Judge Cassimatis sentenced Philip S. Toomey to undergo imprisonment for a period of not less than six nor more than twelve months, to pay the costs of prosecution, and to make restitution. This direct appeal followed with trial counsel appearing as appellate counsel as well. One issue has been presented for our consideration, as follows: Brief for Appellant at 4. During the trial of the instant case, the Commonwealth sought to prove six burglary convictions in 1977 against the defendant. An extended colloquy took place among counsel for the Commonwealth, counsel for the defendant, and the court. Record at 36-45. Judge Cassimatis considered the test set forth in Commonwealth v. Bighum, 452 Pa. 554, 307 A.2d 255 (1973) where our supreme court held: Id., 452 Pa. at 562-567, 307 A.2d at 260, 262-63. At the trial, Philip S. Toomey had taken the witness stand and testified that he was at a beer party given for his sister-in-law for her birthday. He said he arrived at the party around 10:00 o'clock in the evening on July 17, 1980 and that he was "drinking pretty heavy". Record at 49. He said that he left the party with his brother, sister-in-law, *286 and Terry Schrum. He went to his brother's house, a block away. He did not wake up until the following morning "around dinner time." Record at 51. The defense called several other witnesses, including Terry Schrum, to support Toomey's alibi testimony. During his direct testimony in defense, Philip Toomey admitted that he had "recently been charged with" six or eight burglaries in 1977 and that he plead guilty to those crimes. Record at 53-54. As of the time that Philip Toomey took the witness stand, Judge Cassimatis had already indicated that he would permit the Commonwealth to present the prior convictions in rebuttal. Judge Cassimatis analyzed his ruling in the following language: Record at 40-44. In Commonwealth v. Roots, 482 Pa. 33, 393 A.2d 364 (1978), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, speaking through Mr. Justice Nix, pointed out that the burden is upon the prosecution to show that the need for this type of evidence overcomes its inherent potential for prejudice. Justice Nix said that an accused is entitled to a trial before an objective, dispassionate, and impartial trier of fact. The court said: Id.; 482 Pa. at 41-42, 393 A.2d at 368. In Commonwealth v. Williams, 273 Pa.Super. 389, 417 A.2d 704 (1980), a panel of our court (Cercone, President Judge, Wieand and Hoffman, JJ.), in a decision by Judge Wieand, reached a similar result and held that the trial court had abused its discretion when it determined during trial that four prior robbery convictions would be admitted to attack appellant's credibility if he testified. The panel concluded that this ruling was an abuse of discretion, and reversed and remanded for a new trial. In Williams, Judge Wieand conceded that "the question is a close one." Id., 273 Pa.Superior Ct. at 392, 417 A.2d at 705. We feel that, under the circumstances that confronted Judge Cassimatis, his exercise of discretion was proper and his decision legally correct. Clearly, the convictions were for a crime involving an element of dishonesty and which does tend to discredit a witness as being untruthful. Also, the appellant's credibility was a significant issue for the jury to decide. Furthermore, the burglary convictions were recent. In addition, the only Commonwealth witness to link the defendant to the crime was witness Buckingham. It was a one-on-one identification with no supporting witnesses. There were no statements given by the defendant available for use by the Commonwealth. In addition, the defendant testified as to his alibi and called other witnesses to support his testimony. Under all the circumstances, we believe Judge Cassimatis correctly applied the balancing test of Commonwealth v. Bighum, supra, and properly exercised his discretion in admitting prior convictions to impeach credibility. Judgment of sentence affirmed.