Court Opinion

ID: 9718230
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:19:19.169603+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:58.064876
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the decision to affirm the judgment of sentence. However, because appellant failed to preserve for appellate review the legality of the police stop of his vehicle after he attempted to avoid a police roadblock, I find it unnecessary to address the merits of this issue. My review of the record discloses that this issue was not raised in appellant’s post-trial motions, and, as such, has not been preserved for appellate review.
I respectfully disagree with the notion that issues not raised in post-trial motions or supplemental post-trial motions are preserved for review if they are passed upon by the trial court. This is not the law. “It is well settled that only issues raised in post-trial motions are preserved for appellate review.” Commonwealth v. Copeland, 381 Pa.Super. 382, 385, 554 A.2d 54, 55 (1988). See: Commonwealth v. Gravely, 486 Pa. 194, 198-199, 404 A.2d 1296, 1298 (1979). See also: Commonwealth v. Heckman, 366 Pa.Super. 224, 227, 530 A.2d 1372, 1373 (1987); Commonwealth v. Thier, 354 Pa.Super. 7, 9, 510 A.2d 1251, 1252 (1986), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 846, 108 S.Ct. 142, 98 L.Ed.2d 98 (1987).
*115A contrary rule is not supported by the Supreme Court decision in Commonwealth v. Sheaff, 518 Pa. 655, 544 A.2d 1342 (1988) or by Superior Court decisions in Commonwealth v. Sopota, 403 Pa.Super. 1, 587 A.2d 805 (1991) (en banc) and Commonwealth v. Hewett, 380 Pa.Super. 334, 551 A.2d 1080 (1988). These decisions simply do not stand for the proposition that an issue which has not been raised in post-trial motions is preserved for appellate review merely because the trial court has considered the issue in its opinion. In all of the foregoing opinions, the issue to be reviewed had been raised in supplemental post-trial motions filed out of time and without prior leave of court. The trial court had nevertheless considered the issues and decided them on their merits. This was tantamount to permission by the trial court to file post-trial motions beyond the time allowed by the rule. Therefore, the issue was not deemed waived by appellant’s failure to raise the issue in his initial post-trial motions. However, none of these decisions change the well settled rule that issues not raised in post-trial motions are not preserved for appellate review.
Because the legality of appellant’s stop by the police has been waived, I concur in the result. I express no opinion regarding the right of police to stop and search a vehicle which has attempted to avoid a police roadblock.