Court Opinion

ID: 9750556
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 15:07:20.028586+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:12.654365
License: Public Domain

McEWEN, Judge,
concurring:
Since I have concluded that the eminent Judge Clement J. McGovern properly granted the application for an extension upon which the court conducted a hearing on May 11, 1981, I would affirm the judgment of sentence. I am unable to do so, however, in the clear, certain fashion of my learned colleagues who also affirm. In fact, the differing expression of view of our distinguished colleague President Judge Edmund B. Spaeth is quite persuasive and should serve as an instruction to the prosecution that it should in the future provide a more fervent presentation of good cause. The assistant district attorney here only supplied to the court a quite minimal assertion and not only failed to present any evidence but also neglected to supply in the assertion any specific information concerning the educational program at which the police officer who was the principal Common*225wealth witness would be a participant. Even if the statements of the police officer to the prosecutor concerning the seminar satisfied the prosecutor, the assistant district attorney should have been aware that the hearing judge was entitled to more data, such as, for example, the proximity of the school to the situs of the trial. The hearing court might then have been able to structure arrangements for the appearance and testimony of the police officer without interruption of his training classes. Nonetheless, I am unable to conclude that it was error for the court to grant the extension.
Since the remaining assertions of appellant lack merit, I would affirm the judgment of sentence.