Court Opinion

ID: 9719726
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:01:37.747673+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:09.589418
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice CAPPY,
dissenting.
The Majority endorses the decision of the trial court to “re-revoke” Appellee’s probation based on what the Majority classifies as a contingency arising from the trial court’s decision to treat Appellee with leniency regarding the possible outcome of pending criminal charges. (Majority opinion at p. 423-25, 888 A.2d 783, 793). As I cannot accept this depiction of the trial court’s actions in this case and because I do not agree that the trial court has the option to “re-revoke” probation, I am compelled to dissent.
A finding of a probation violation is warranted when the evidence shows that probation is not an effective means of rehabilitation or deterrence of future antisocial conduct. Commonwealth v. Kates, 452 Pa. 102, 305 A.2d 701, 708 (1973). The focus at the violation hearing is on the conduct of the probationer. The resolution of any pending charges that might have prompted a violation hearing is not necessary to the issue of revocation. Id. at 711. In situations where a probationer feces a violation hearing because of new charges, the trial court has two options: to conduct the hearing before or after the new charges are resolved. Kates, at 709; Commonwealth v. Burrell, 497 Pa. 367, 441 A.2d 744, 745 (1982). What a trial court cannot do, however, is, as here, have it both ways.
*428Probation is appropriate where the probationer and society can both benefit and inappropriate when the probationer reveals that his or her conduct has not reformed and society faces new threats from continued exposure to the probationer. That is why a trial court has the authority to revoke probation when the conduct of the probationer necessitates immediate action without the need to await resolution of pending charges. Those same considerations can, in other cases, justify waiting for resolution of new charges where the conduct of the probationer has not created a need for immediate action. There is no justification, nor authority, for a trial judge to “re-revoke” probation after a conviction stemming from conduct known to the trial court at the prior revocation hearing. To endorse the trial court’s actions in this case would subject a probationary defendant to multiple revocations based upon the identical conduct.
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
Justice NIGRO joins this dissenting opinion.