Court Opinion

ID: 9886475
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 16:10:58.053047+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:50.190225
License: Public Domain

J-S33043-23

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT O.P. 65.37

  COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA                 :   IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
                                               :        PENNSYLVANIA
                                               :
                v.                             :
                                               :
                                               :
  KAY A. BROWN                                 :
                                               :
                       Appellant               :   No. 326 WDA 2023

     Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence Entered February 17, 2023
   In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County Criminal Division at
                     No(s): CP-02-SA-0001578-2022

BEFORE:      BENDER, P.J.E., McCAFFERY, J., and STEVENS, P.J.E.*

MEMORANDUM BY STEVENS, P.J.E.:                       FILED: OCTOBER 6, 2023

       Appellant Kay A. Brown files this pro se appeal from the judgment of

sentence entered by the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, which

conducted a trial de novo on Appellant’s summary appeal from the guilty

verdict entered by the magisterial district judge on the charge of Driving While

Operating Privilege is Suspended or Revoked (non-DUI related) in violation of

75 Pa.C.S.A. § 1543(a). We affirm.

       The trial court provided the following factual background:

             During the hearing of February 17, 2023, Officer Jason
       Woleslagle, with the Pleasant Hills Police Department, testified
       that on October 9, 2022, he was investigating a vehicle accident
       that had occurred in a parking lot and saw that [Appellant’s]
       vehicle had a broken rear window from the crash. [Appellant] was
       the registered owner of the vehicle. There was someone in the

____________________________________________

* Former Justice specially assigned to the Superior Court.
J-S33043-23

       passenger’s seat of the vehicle but no one was in the driver’s
       seat.1 The keys were not in the vehicle.

             After a while, [Appellant] exited a food shop called Jersey
       Mike’s and identified herself as being the operator of the vehicle.
       Officer Woleslagle testified that [Appellant] “identif[ied] herself as
       the owner and operator of the vehicle …” Later in the hearing, in
       response to [the trial] court’s questions, Officer Woleslagle
       explained that he confronted [Appellant] after she had exited the
       food shop[, indicating] “I asked her for her license. She said she
       had no license and I asked how did she get here, she drove the
       vehicle here to go pick up food at Jersey Mike’s.” [The trial court]
       questioned whether [Appellant] said she drove and Officer
       Woleslagle responded “[s]he said she operated the vehicle, she
       told me she drove the vehicle.”

Trial Court Opinion, 5/12/23, at 1-2 (citations omitted). The Commonwealth

admitted an exhibit from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

indicating that Appellant’s license had been suspended.

       On February 17, 2023, the Court of Common Pleas held a hearing on

Appellant’s summary appeal after which it affirmed the finding and sentence

imposed by the magistrate in which Appellant was ordered to pay a $200.00

fine plus costs. On March 16, 2023, Appellant filed this timely pro se appeal

and complied with the trial court’s direction to file a concise statement of

errors complained of on appeal pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b).2

____________________________________________

1 Appellant indicated at trial that the passenger was her husband, who could

not walk and would have been unable to drive her vehicle.
2 We note that defendants in summary cases do not generally have a

constitutional right to be provided with counsel. Commonwealth v. Long,
688 A.2d 198, 201 (Pa.Super. 1996). Rather, “[t]he right to counsel in
summary cases “attaches only to those defendants who are unable ‘to employ
counsel when there is a likelihood that imprisonment will be imposed.” Id.
(citing Pa.R.Crim.P. 316(a)) (emphasis added). Thus, this Court found that
“there is no right to counsel where the only sentence provided for in a
summary violation is a fine and costs.” Long, 688 A.2d at 201.

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      Appellant raises the following issues for review on appeal:

      1. Did the Courts have sufficient evidence in supporting the
         Appellant was driving.

      2. Whether the evidence was sufficient to prove that the Appellant
         was driving on a public highway or roadway.

      3. Did the Officer retrieve the video of the incident from Southland
         Shopping Center.

      4. Did the Officer call or reveal the name of the eyewitness or
         Officer 2 for testimony.

Appellant’s Brief, at 2.

      We are guided by the following standard of review:

      Our standard of review from an appeal of a summary conviction
      heard de novo by the trial court is limited to a determination of
      whether the trial court committed an error of law and whether
      competent        evidence     supports  the    findings    of   fact.
      Commonwealth v. Marizzaldi, 814 A.2d 249, 251 (Pa. Super.
      2002). “The adjudication of the trial court will not be disturbed on
      appeal absent a manifest abuse of discretion.” Commonwealth
      v. Parks, 768 A.2d 1168, 1171 (Pa. Super. 2001). “An abuse of
      discretion exists when the trial court has rendered a judgment
      that is manifestly unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious, has failed
      to apply the law, or was motivated by partiality, prejudice, bias,
      or ill will.” Id. (citation omitted).

Commonwealth v. Ishankulov, 275 A.3d 498, 502 (Pa.Super. 2022).

      In the first two issues, Appellant argues that there was insufficient

evidence to support her conviction for Driving While Operating Privilege is

Suspended or Revoked under Section 1543(a).

      As a general matter, our standard of review of sufficiency claims
      requires that we evaluate the record in the light most favorable to
      the verdict winner giving the prosecution the benefit of all
      reasonable inferences to be drawn from the evidence. Evidence
      will be deemed sufficient to support the verdict when it establishes
      each material element of the crime charged and the commission

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     thereof by the accused, beyond a reasonable doubt. Nevertheless,
     the Commonwealth need not establish guilt to a mathematical
     certainty. Any doubt about the defendant's guilt is to be resolved
     by the fact finder unless the evidence is so weak and inconclusive
     that, as a matter of law, no probability of fact can be drawn from
     the combined circumstances.

     The Commonwealth may sustain its burden by means of wholly
     circumstantial evidence. Accordingly, [t]he fact that the evidence
     establishing a defendant's participation in a crime is circumstantial
     does not preclude a conviction where the evidence coupled with
     the reasonable inferences drawn therefrom overcomes the
     presumption of innocence. Significantly, we may not substitute
     our judgment for that of the fact finder; thus, so long as the
     evidence adduced, accepted in the light most favorable to the
     Commonwealth, demonstrates the respective elements of a
     defendant's crimes beyond a reasonable doubt, the appellant's
     convictions will be upheld.

Commonwealth v. Sebolka, 205 A.3d 329, 336–37 (Pa.Super. 2019).

     Section 1543(a) provides, in relevant part:

     any person who drives a motor vehicle on any highway or
     trafficway of this Commonwealth after the commencement of a
     suspension, revocation or cancellation of the operating privilege
     and before the operating privilege has been restored is guilty of a
     summary offense and shall, upon conviction or adjudication of
     delinquency, be sentenced to pay a fine of $200.

75 Pa.C.S.A. § 1543.

     The Vehicle Code defines “highway” and “trafficway” as follows:

     “Highway.” The entire width between the boundary lines of every
     way publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use
     of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. The term includes a
     roadway open to the use of the public for vehicular travel on
     grounds of a college or university or public or private school or
     public or historical park.

     “Trafficway.” The entire width between property lines or other
     boundary lines of every way or place of which any part is open to
     the public for purposes of vehicular travel as a matter of right or
     custom.

                                     -4-
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75 Pa.C.S.A. § 102.

      Specifically, Appellant argues that the Commonwealth failed to prove

that she was 1) driving a vehicle or 2) driving on a highway or trafficway.

Appellant argues that she never told Officer Woleslagle that she was driving

the vehicle and emphasizes that Officer Woleslagle admits that he did not see

her in the vehicle. While Appellant denies that her husband, who was sitting

in the passenger seat, drove the vehicle, she asserts that there is no proof

that she drove the vehicle.

      In this case, Officer Woleslagle responded to an accident that occurred

in a parking lot and discovered a vehicle, registered to Appellant, that showed

signs of damage.      When Appellant came out of a nearby store, Officer

Woleslagle indicated that Appellant told him that she had driven the vehicle

and admitted she did not have a license.      Appellant admits that she was

picking up food to “take back” to her home.

      Given that the trial court found that Officer Woleslagle’s testimony was

credible, the circumstantial evidence established that Appellant had driven her

vehicle on a highway or trafficway while her license was suspended.      Thus,

Appellant’s sufficiency challenge fails.

      In her third and fourth claims on appeal, Appellant suggests that the

trial court should have required the Commonwealth to produce surveillance

video from the Southland Shopping Center or called an additional eyewitness

or responding officer to testify.

                                      -5-
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      Other than these bald allegations, Appellant offers no authority or

analysis to support these arguments. As such, we find these two issues to be

waived on appeal. See Commonwealth v. Antidormi, 84 A.3d 736, 754

(Pa.Super. 2014) (when the appellant fails to cite to legal authority and does

not develop any meaningful analysis in support of a claim, we may find an

issue waived for lack of development).

      For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the judgment of sentence.

      Judgment of sentence affirmed.

DATE: 10/6/2023

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