Court Opinion

ID: 9652484
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:24:39.707469+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:51.795529
License: Public Domain

concurring.
I concur in the result only. I write separately to express my vehement disagreement with the majority’s interpretation and application of Pa.R.Crim.P. Rule 133.
Rule 133 provides in relevant part:
*211(a) When the affiant is not a law enforcement officer ... the complaint shall be submitted to an attorney for the Commonwealth, who shall approve or disapprove without unreasonable delay.
(b) If the attorney for the Commonwealth
(2) Disapproves the complaint, the attorney shall state the reasons on the complaint form and return it to the affiant. Thereafter the affiant may file the complaint with a judge of a Court of Common Pleas for approval or disapproval; ...
(emphasis added).
The rule does not state that the common pleas court judge shall act in an appellate capacity when approving or disapproving a private criminal complaint. Nor does the rule state that the court's function in approving or disapproving a private criminal complaint is to assess whether the prosecutor abused his or her discretion in disapproving the complaint. Thus, it does not matter on what basis the prosecutor makes his or her decision for the matter to be “within the purview of the judicial system to review”. Maj. op. at 768.1 Indeed, soon after Rule 133 went into effect, Superior Court correctly noted that the rule “protects the interest of the private complainant by allowing for the submission of the disapproved complaint to a judge of a court of common pleas. The judge’s independent review of the complaint checks and balances the district attorney’s decision and further hedges against possibility of error.” Petition of Piscanio, 235 Pa.Super. 490, 494-95, 344 A.2d 658, 661 (1975), allocatur denied (emphasis added).
The Commonwealth, as appellant in this case, has lost sight of the fact that throughout the history of this Commonwealth and until 1974, private criminal complaints were not subject to review by the district attorney. From time immemorial, the right of the citizen to seek redress in the *212courts has always been preserved. And it was for the courts, through the office of an issuing authority, to determine, before issuing process, whether 1) the complaint was properly completed and executed; 2) the affiant was a responsible person; and 3) there was probable cause for the issuance of process. Pa.R.Crim.P. Rule 106 as adopted Jan. 31, 1970, eff. May 1, 1970.
Clearly, the changes that were made to this procedure were not intended to radically alter the practice of instituting criminal proceedings by private criminal complaint. Rather, the changes were intended to enable the district attorney to merely weed out frivolous cases. If the private complainant is not satisfied with the determination of the district attorney under the present rules of procedure,.he or she still has, and must have, access to the judiciary. The changes made to our rules of criminal procedure merely concerned who was to approve the complaint in the first instance. In fact, with regard to related amendments made to the rules of criminal procedure in 1974, the comment to Rule 134 stated simply that it was now for the district attorney to “evaluate the responsibility of the charge contained in the complaint”. Comment to Rule 134 as adopted Sept. 18, 1973, eff. Jan. 1, 1974.
Thus, by preserving the right of a private complainant to obtain the independent approval or disapproval of the complaint by a judge of the court of common pleas, Rule 133 does not contemplate that criminal proceedings initiated by private complaint will be subject to the “policy” and discretion of the district attorney.
In addition, the majority raises the issue of whether “the procedure provided for under Rule 133 applies to the instant facts”. Maj. op. at 210 n. 7. If the implication of the majority is that Rule 133 does not apply to this case, in spite of the fact that the issue may have been waived, I agree, because the approval of a private criminal complaint by a district attorney or a judge of the court of common pleas is only necessary where the offense charged does not involve *213a clear and present danger to any person or to the community. In all other cases, i.e., those involving charges that present a clear and present danger to any person or to the community, the district attorney does not act as a buffer between the private complainant and the issuing authority. Thus, upon the filing of a private criminal complaint involving acts which constitute a clear and present danger to any person or to the community, the issuing authority must conduct a preliminary hearing. As this case involves a charge of homicide, the approval of the district attorney pursuant to Rule 133 was not necessary.
PAPADAKOS, Justice,

. The majority seems to be of the opinion that the decision of the prosecutor can only be reviewed by the court where it is based on the merits of the case and not on some nebulous matter of policy.