Court Opinion

ID: 9643215
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:22:26.277995+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:57.402585
License: Public Domain

NEWMAN, Justice,
dissenting.
The Majority holds that District Attorney J. Michael Eakin lacked authority to appoint Deputy Attorney General Shawn C. Wagner as a Special Assistant District Attorney for the purpose of prosecuting this drug case. Because the Commonwealth Attorneys Act, 71 P.S. § 732-101, et seq. (the Act), does not prohibit the appointment, and the District Attorney acted within his statutory authority pursuant to 16 P.S. § 1420 in making the appointment, I must respectfully dissent.
*594The Act lists specific categories of circumstances where the Attorney General may prosecute cases in the county criminal courts and prohibits the Attorney General from prosecuting under circumstances not expressly enumerated in the Act. Commonwealth v. Khorey, 521 Pa. 1, 555 A.2d 100 (1989). All parties agree that the Attorney General did not have authority under the Act to prosecute this case. The Attorney General’s authority to prosecute this case, however, is irrelevant because the District Attorney of Cumberland County, not the Attorney General, prosecuted the case. The Superior Court aptly noted this important distinction as follows:
The record establishes the Cumberland County District Attorney appointed Deputy Attorney General Shawn C. Wagner as a Special Assistant District Attorney for Cumberland County to prosecute defendant’s case. The Cumberland County District Attorney did not invoke the Commonwealth Attorneys Act, which delineates in what instances the attorney general may prosecute county criminal actions, but rather relied on the authority set forth in 16 Pa.C.S. § 1420, Assistant District Attorney; Number; Compensation, granting the district attorney the power to appoint assistant district attorneys or special assistant district attorneys to assist him in his duties.
Commonwealth v. Lawson, 442 Pa.Super. 98, 102-03, 658 A.2d 801, 804 (1995). Moreover, the trial court specifically found that Wagner prosecuted this case in his capacity as Special Assistant District Attorney rather than as Deputy Attorney General. The trial court stated:
We find that Eakin appointed Wagner as a Special Assistant District Attorney for Cumberland County, and that Wagner did not prosecute this matter as an Attorney General. First, Eakin never relinquished his authority to prosecute this case. Second, Wagner was under the District Attorney’s direction and supervision as Eakin made all important strategic and tactical decisions concerning the prosecution. *595[S]ince Wagner did not prosecute this matter as an Attorney General, the Act was never invoked, nor violated.
Trial Court slip. op. at 5-6.
The Majority tacitly concedes that there was no violation of the Act here. Instead of contesting this point, the Majority focuses on the District Attorney’s authority to appoint assistants pursuant to 16 P.S. § 1420 and concludes that the District Attorney had no authority to appoint Wagner as a Special Assistant District Attorney. Rather than examining the language of Section 1420, the Majority has decided to concentrate its analysis on Sections 1421, 1422 and 1423 because Section 1420 “cannot be read in isolation from the other provisions with which it appears in part (b) of Article XIV of the County Code.” Majority op. at 1248. None of those sections, however, expressly or impliedly limits the authority granted in Section 1420. Therefore, I believe the Majority has- erred by disregarding the letter of Section 1420 under the pretext of pursuing its spirit. 1 Pa.C.S. § 1921(b).
The proper focus of the inquiry should be on the plain language of Section 1420, which is the only section the District Attorney has invoked. Section 1420 provides as follows:
§ 1420. Assistant district attorneys; number; compensation
The district attorney may appoint such number of assistants, learned in the law, to assist him in the discharge of his duties, as is fixed by the salary board of the county. The salary board shall fix the salary of such assistants.
16 P.S. § 1420. Thus, Section 1420 gives a district attorney broad authority to appoint assistants, requiring only that the assistants be learned in the law and approved by the salary board. If the legislature desired to place greater limits on the power of district attorneys to appoint assistants, it would surely have done so.
Here, Wagner is clearly capable to practice law and the Salary Board of Cumberland County approved his appointment. Because District Attorney Eakin fully complied with 16 P.S. § 1420 when he appointed Wagner as Special Assistant *596District Attorney, Wagner’s prosecution of Lawson was proper. Accordingly, I would affirm the Order of the Superior Court.
CASTILLE, J., joins this dissenting opinion.