IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania : 

: 

v. : No. 1611 C.D. 2016

: Submitted: March 10, 2017

Steven Klingensmith, :

Appellant :

BEFORE: HONORABLE MARY HANNAH LEAVITT, President Judge

HONORABLE PATRICIA A. McCULLOUGH, Judge

HONORABLE JAMES GARDNER COLINS, Senior Judge

OPINION NOT REPORTED

MEMORANDUM OPINION BY

SENIOR JUDGE COLINS FILED: April 18, 2017

This is a pro se appeal filed by Steven Klingensmith (Klingensmith) 

from an order of the Indiana County Court of Common Pleas (trial court) 

dismissing a motion that he filed in three criminal cases seeking to remove a 

$60.00 item of costs assessed pursuant to the Crime Victims Act.

1

 We affirm.

In the first of the cases, Klingensmith pleaded guilty on September 13, 

2013 to charges of Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol (DUI)-Highest Rate of 

Alcohol 2nd Offense and Driving While Operating Privilege is 

Suspended/Revoked-DUI Related, arising out of acts that he committed on

September 22, 2012. (CP-32-CR-0001716-2012 Criminal Docket Sheet at 4, 11-

12, 14.) On November 22, 2013, Klingensmith pleaded guilty in the second case, 

to charges of DUI-Highest Rate of Alcohol 1st Offense and Driving While 

 

1 Act of November 24, 1998, P.L. 882, as amended, 18 P.S. §§ 11.101–11.5102.
2

Operating Privilege is Suspended/Revoked-DUI Related, arising out of acts that he 

committed on July 27, 2013. (CP-32-CR-0001034-2013 Criminal Docket Sheet at 

3, 6, 8.) In the third criminal case, Klingensmith pleaded guilty on November 22, 

2013 to charges of Attempted Robbery and Simple Assault, arising out of acts that 

he committed on August 9, 2013. (CP-32-CR-0001084-2013 Criminal Docket 

Sheet at 3, 6-7.) 

On December 20, 2013, Klingensmith was sentenced by the trial court

in all three cases. In the first case, the trial court sentenced Klingensmith to one 

and one-half to five years imprisonment for the DUI and 90 days imprisonment for 

Driving While Operating Privilege is Suspended/Revoked-DUI Related, plus costs 

and fines. (CP-32-CR-0001716-2012 Sentence Order.) In the second case, the 

trial court sentenced Klingensmith to three to six months imprisonment for the 

DUI and 90 days imprisonment for Driving While Operating Privilege is 

Suspended/Revoked-DUI Related, plus costs and fines. (CP-32-CR-0001034-2013

Sentence Order.) In the third case, the trial court sentenced Klingensmith to two

and one-half to ten years imprisonment for Attempted Robbery and one to two 

years imprisonment for Simple Assault, plus costs and fines. (CP-32-CR0001084-2013 Sentence Order.) The trial court ordered that the sentences imposed 

in the first case run concurrently with each other but consecutively with the 

sentences in the third criminal case, that the sentences in the second case run 

concurrently with each other and with the sentences imposed in the other two 

cases, and that the sentences in the third case run consecutively. (CP-32-CR0001716-2012 Sentence Order; CP-32-CR-0001034-2013 Sentence Order; CP-32-

CR-0001084-2013 Sentence Order.) 
3

The costs assessed by the trial court against Klingensmith in both the 

first case and the third case included a $60.00 Crime Victim’s Compensation Fund 

and Victim Witness Services Fund (Crime Victim Fund) fee. (Appellant’s Motion 

to Compel DOC to Correct Charges Exs. 1, 3.) On January 27, 2015, the 

Department of Corrections (DOC) notified Klingensmith that it would make 

deductions from his inmate account to satisfy the unpaid portions of these two 

Crime Victim Fund fees and other unpaid costs imposed in those cases. (Id. Exs.

2, 4.) On August 3, 2016, Klingensmith filed a motion in all three of the criminal 

cases asserting that assessment of the Crime Victim Fund fee in the third case was 

erroneous and seeking an order requiring DOC to correct that alleged error and 

refund deductions from his inmate account. On August 31, 2016, the trial court 

issued an order in all three criminal dockets denying Klingensmith’s motion. This 

appeal followed.2 

Klingensmith argues in this Court that only one Crime Victim Fund 

fee can be assessed for all offenses for which sentences are imposed by the same 

judge at the same sentencing. We do not agree. 

Section 1101 of the Crime Victims Act provides:

(a) Imposition.--

(1) A person who pleads guilty or nolo contendere or who is 

convicted of a crime shall, in addition to costs imposed under 

42 Pa. C.S. § 3571(c) (relating to Commonwealth portion of 

fines, etc.), pay costs of at least $60 and may be sentenced to 

pay additional costs in an amount up to the statutory 

maximum monetary penalty for the offense committed.

* * *

 

2 Our review of the trial court’s order is limited to determining whether the trial court committed 

an error of law. Commonwealth v. Mazer, 24 A.3d 481, 483 n.3 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2011).
4

(b) Disposition.--

(1) There is established a special nonlapsing fund, known as 

the Crime Victim’s Compensation Fund. This fund shall be 

used by the Office of Victims’ Services for payment to 

claimants and technical assistance. Thirty-five dollars of the 

costs imposed under subsection (a)(1) and (2) plus 30% of the 

costs imposed under subsection (a)(1) which exceed $60 shall 

be paid into this fund. All costs imposed under subsection 

(a)(3) shall be paid into this fund.

(2) There is established a special nonlapsing fund, known as 

the Victim Witness Services Fund. This fund shall be used by 

the commission for victim-witness services and technical 

assistance in nonvictim compensation-related areas in 

accordance with this section. Twenty-five dollars of the costs 

imposed under subsection (a)(1) and (2) plus 70% of the costs 

imposed under subsection (a)(1) and (2) which exceed $60 

shall be paid into this fund.

(c) Payment.--This cost shall be imposed notwithstanding any 

statutory provision to the contrary.

* * *

(e) Court order.--No court order shall be necessary in order 

for the defendant to incur liability for costs under this section. 

Costs under this section must be paid in order for the 

defendant to be eligible for probation, parole or accelerated 

rehabilitative disposition.

18 P.S. § 11.1101. Nothing in this language limits Crime Victim Fund fees for 

separate criminal convictions to a single assessment simply because the defendant

is sentenced on the same day by the same judge. To the contrary, where a 

defendant pleads guilty or is convicted in separate criminal cases based on 

different criminal episodes, the mandatory Crime Victim Fund fee is properly 

assessed in each of those criminal cases, even if joint proceedings on the cases are 

held before the trial court. See In re C.A.G., 89 A.3d 704, 710-13 (Pa. Super.
5

2014) (in juvenile delinquency cases, separate Crime Victim Fund fees are

properly assessed under 18 P.S. § 11.1101(a)(3) for each juvenile petition based on 

a different delinquent episode, even if the cases are heard and adjudicated 

together).

Here, the guilty pleas for which the $60.00 Crime Victim Fund fees 

were assessed were separate cases based on entirely different criminal episodes on 

different dates. The conduct for which Klingensmith was criminally charged in the 

first case was a DUI that occurred on September 22, 2012, and the charges in the 

third case related to an attempted robbery of a convenience store, almost a year 

later, on August 9, 2013. (CP-32-CR-0001716-2012 Criminal Information; CP-32-

CR-0001084-2013 Criminal Information.) Indeed, Klingensmith’s guilty pleas in 

the two cases did not even occur on the same date. The trial court’s assessment of 

a separate $60.00 Crime Victim Fund fee for each of these cases was therefore 

completely proper and valid.

Because the cost assessments that Klingensmith challenges were 

valid, he was not entitled to modification of or relief from those assessments. 

Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s order denying his motion to correct Crime 

Victim Fund charges. 

____________________________________

JAMES GARDNER COLINS, Senior Judge
IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania : 

: 

v. : No. 1611 C.D. 2016

: 

Steven Klingensmith, :

Appellant :

O R D E R

AND NOW, this 18th day of April, 2017, the order of August 31, 2016

of the Court of Common Pleas of Indiana County in the above-captioned case is

AFFIRMED.

____________________________________

JAMES GARDNER COLINS, Senior Judge