Court Opinion

ID: 9747325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:10:37.311742+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:22.860843
License: Public Domain

WICKERSHAM, Judge,
dissenting:
I would reverse the lower court which granted a petition filed by appellee Bruce Carsia quashing the criminal information. As the Attorney General argued:
The Attorney General, as chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth, had the authority to prosecute Bruce Carsia, an attorney at law, for attempting to bribe two police officers and fix a preliminary hearing. The prosecutorial and investigative powers of the Attorney General as determined by decisions of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, are broad and vast. The lower court erred by concluding otherwise and by quashing the criminal informations filed by the Attorney General.
The Attorney General was authorized to investigate and prosecute Carsia by virtue of the Commonwealth Attorneys Act. Carsia’s actions of trying to fix a preliminary hearing was an attempt to influence or benefit from the influencing of a state official or employee. Additionally, Carsia’s actions amount to a violation of 18 Pa.C.S. § 911 (corrupt organizations). Finally as a licensed attorney at law, Carsia was a state official as that term is defined in the Commonwealth Attorneys Act.
*261Agents of the Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation are vested with full police power of investigation and arrest. Therefore, the investigation and subsequent arrest of Carsia by Agents of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation was lawful.
Carsia had no standing to challenge whether the Attorney General, the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth has the authority to prosecute him. Such a challenge rests with the district attorney. Furthermore, the district attorney agreed that the Attorney General should investigate and prosecute the case sub judice.1
I agree.

. Brief for Appellant at 8-9.