Court Opinion

ID: 9532098
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:18:09.279848+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:40.486644
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. I would affirm the order of the trial court which revoked appellant’s parole and directed that he be recommitted to serve the unexpired portion of the sentence previously imposed.
There are at least three issues which require consideration. It is because I disagree with the majority’s determination of two of these issues that I write in dissent.
I
First, I find myself in disagreement with the majority’s holding that the Commonwealth may prove a violation of parole by showing merely that the parolee was arrested on an assault charge which, after preliminary hearing before a magistrate, was returned to court.
In Commonwealth v. Maye, 270 Pa. Super. 406, 411 A.2d 783 (1979), this Court said:
A parole revocation hearing is not a formal procedure that must be conducted in strict accordance with the entire gamut of evidentiary and procedural rules necessary in a criminal trial. Commonwealth v. Kates, 452 Pa. 102, 305 A.2d 701 (1973); Commonwealth v. Rossetti, 255 Pa.Super. 524, 388 A.2d 1090 (1978); Commonwealth v. Tomczak, 252 Pa.Super. 114, 381 A.2d 140 (1977); Commonwealth v. Quinlan, 251 Pa.Super. 428, 380 A.2d *196854 (1977). Nonetheless such a hearing must comport with certain minimum due process standards enunciated by the United States Supreme Court in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972). Among these requirements is the “right [of the probationer] to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses (unless the hearing officer specifically finds good cause for not allowing confrontation);____” Id. at 489, 92 S.Ct. at 2604. We have noted the necessity for this type of confrontation on several previous occasions. See Commonwealth v. Rossetti, supra; Commonwealth v. Riley, 253 Pa.Super. 260, 384 A.2d 1333 (1978); Commonwealth v. Ball, 235 Pa.Super. 581, 344 A.2d 675 (1975); Commonwealth v. Davis, 234 Pa.Super. 31, 336 A.2d 616 (1975).
Id., 270 Pa.Superior Ct. at 410, 411 A.2d at 785.
In the instant case there was no evidence that appellant had been convicted or that he had in fact committed an assault. Neither appellant’s arrest for assault nor the testimony of the arresting officer and appellant’s parole officer that a prima facie case had been found by the magistrate was adequate, without more, to warrant a revocation of appellant’s parole. If arrest alone were an adequate basis for revoking parole, a parolee’s continuation in that status would be wholly dependent on the discretion of the police. This is not the law. Evidence of an arrest on a new charge, without more, cannot be an adequate basis on which a court may revoke parole and recommit the parolee.
A magisterial determination that a prima facie case exists may be used in lieu of a Gagnon I hearing to show probable cause. See: Commonwealth v. Griggs, 314 Pa.Super. 407, 409 n.1, 461 A.2d 221, 222 n.1 (1983); Commonwealth v. Del Conte, 277 Pa.Super. 296, 298 n.2, 419 A.2d 780, 781 n.2 (1980). Standing alone, however, a magisterial finding of prima facie evidence will not support a revocation of parole during or following a Gagnon II hearing. Until there has been a conviction, an arrest is at best a technical violation. Commonwealth v. Greenlee, 263 Pa.Super. 477, 484 n.6, *197398 A.2d 676, 679 n.6 (1979). See: Commonwealth v. Michenfelder, 268 Pa.Super. 424, 426 n.1, 408 A.2d 860, 861 n.1 (1979). Mere evidence of arrest, without substantive evidence that the parolee committed an offense, did not in this case support an order revoking appellant’s parole and directing his recommitment to serve the unexpired portion of his sentence.
II
The revocation of parole, however, was supported by other evidence. A prisoner released on parole prior to the expiration of his maximum sentence gains freedom only conditionally. Parole may be revoked upon a showing, by a preponderance of the evidence, that parole no longer serves as an effective vehicle to accomplish rehabilitation and a sufficient deterrent against future antisocial conduct by the parolee.
Commonwealth v. Brown, 503 Pa. 514, 469 A.2d 1371 (probation revocation). It is a course of conduct by the parolee which reveals that parole is no longer an appropriate alternative.
Appellant in this case was found to have violated a special condition of parole imposed by the court, i.e., that he refrain from contacting Doris Glouner, the victim of the offense of terroristic threats to which appellant had pleaded nolo contendere. At the parole revocation hearing, the Commonwealth introduced evidence sufficient to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that appellant had violated this condition of parole by telephoning and harassing Ms. Glouner. Therefore, without regard to whether an assault had been committed by appellant during his parole, the evidence was sufficient to show a violation of the conditions of parole. Where there is a valid, independent basis for the revocation of parole, irregularities with respect to alternative reasons are of no moment. See: Donell v. Penna. Board of Probation and Parole, 70 Pa.Cmwlth.Ct. 265, 270, 453 A.2d 36, 39 (1982).
*198Ill
When appellant’s sentence was initially imposed, he was sentenced to prison for not less than time served nor more than twenty-three months. Appellant did not thereafter file a motion to modify his sentence. Similarly, he did not appeal. He demonstrated that he was satisfied with the sentence which the court had imposed; and, therefore, he did not complain that the court had failed to place on the record adequate reasons for the sentence imposed. Any inadequacies in the court’s reasons for the sentence, therefore, were waived. Commonwealth v. Stetler, 494 Pa. 551, 565, 431 A.2d 992, 999 (1981).
After parole had been revoked, the court did not impose a new sentence. It merely recommitted appellant to serve that portion of the original sentence which appellant had not then served. Because this was not a new sentence, there was no requirement and no reason that I can discern for requiring a new statement of reasons for the sentence.1 Moreover, because the issue of the adequacy of the reasons for the initial sentence was waived, appellant should not now be entitled to a remand for resentencing.
I would affirm the order of the trial court which revoked appellant’s parole and recommitted him to serve the unexpired portion of his sentence.

. I note, but express disagreement with the decision of a panel of this Court which concluded otherwise in Commonwealth v. Dorsey, 328 Pa.Super. 241, 476 A.2d 1308 (1984). I am unable to comprehend any valid reason for, and certainly no rule requires, a redundant statement of reasons for a sentence in an order revoking parole. Moreover, I am unable to comprehend any good reason for imposing upon a court a burden which does not have application to revocation of parole in more serious cases by the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole. The statement of reasons for the sentence must be placed on the record by the court when sentence is imposed, not when parole is revoked. See: Pa.R.Crim.P. 1405. Parole revocation is not a new sentence; it depends upon a finding by the court that a violation of parole has occurred of sufficient import to show that parole has not been effective and has failed to achieve its intended purpose. The consequence of a parole violation is service of the sentence initially imposed.