Court Opinion

ID: 9757810
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:00:00.396386+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:44.669825
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Chief Justice,
concurring.
The order of the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County should be affirmed, not because the “appearance of impropriety” standard is inapplicable to prosecuting attorneys, but because no impropriety, actual or apparent, has been demonstrated which would warrant the relief sought. Accordingly, I concur in the result only.
Appellant entered a negotiated plea of guilty in June of 1973, while represented by Frederick Lanshe, a member of the staff of the Lehigh County Public Defender. In December of 1974, appellant filed a post-conviction petition to withdraw his guilty plea while represented by William Platt, then the Public Defender of Lehigh County.
In January of. 1977, after an evidentiary hearing and argument on appellant’s PCHA petition and while the matter was awaiting final disposition by the PCHA court, Platt was appointed to the office of District Attorney of Lehigh County. Assisted by new counsel, appellant filed a supplemental PCHA petition which alleged that the appointment of Platt to the office of District Attorney created a conflict of interest which required that appellant be permitted to withdraw his guilty plea or, in the alternative, that he be granted a new PCHA hearing.
To withdraw his guilty plea, appellant would, of course, have to establish that the alleged conflict created by Platt’s appointment affected the voluntariness of his plea. Similar*185ly, to be entitled to a new PCHA hearing, appellant would have to demonstrate that the alleged conflict gave rise to actual or apparent impropriety at the hearing on his PCHA petition. As Platt was not appointed District Attorney until over three years after the entry of appellant’s plea, it must be obvious that Platt’s appointment could not have affected appellant’s decision to plead guilty. It is equally obvious that Platt’s assumption of his duties as District Attorney did not create an appearance of impropriety at appellant’s PCHA hearing, for Platt’s appointment did not take place until appellant’s PCHA petition had been argued and the record had been closed.
Because the alleged conflict could not have had any impact either on appellant’s decision to plead guilty or on the fairness of his PCHA hearing, appellant is not entitled to the relief he seeks. At best, appellant would be entitled to the disqualification of the District Attorney of Lehigh County on the present appeal from the denial of post-conviction relief. Because appellant does not seek this relief, and because the PCHA court properly denied appellant’s PCHA petition, the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County must be affirmed.