Court Opinion

ID: 9699009
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:06:42.620457+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:45.412686
License: Public Domain

McDERMOTT, Justice,
dissenting:
I dissent. The majority mistakenly concludes that Commonwealth v. Brown, 503 Pa. 514, 469 A.2d 1371 (1983) controls the instant issue. In Brown, the appellant’s probation was revoked even though he had been acquitted of the charges supporting the revocation. Here however, the appellant’s probation was revoked following a finding that he was guilty of the charges supporting the revocation. That conviction was reversed not for insufficient evidence but on double jeopardy grounds. Therefore, I believe that the reversal of a conviction on legal grounds does not reach the ultimate factual issue as does an acquittal, and therefore, *341this case is unlike Brown and considerations of collateral estoppel do not apply. Hence, to uphold the revocation of appellant’s probation would not be unconstitutional.
Furthermore, the majority’s decision will have negative practical effects for those arrested for crimes during their probation. In Brown, this Court recognized the familiar principle that the Commonwealth may choose to assert alleged criminal behavior as the basis to revoke probation prior to the criminal trial to adjudge that behavior. Commonwealth v. Kates, 452 Pa. 102, 305 A.2d 701 (1973). The Brown Court, however, encouraged the Commonwealth to defer probation revocation hearings until guilt was resolved at trial. Id. 503 Pa. at 525, 469 A.2d at 1376. The Commonwealth had an incentive to do this because a probation revocation hearing court is required as a matter of law to find a violation of probation where there has been a conviction for an offense committed while on probation. Commonwealth v. Burrell, 497 Pa. 367, 373, 441 A.2d 744, 746 (1982). The holding of this Court now imposes upon the Commonwealth the burden of awaiting the final disposition of all the probationer’s appeals to take advantage of the Burrell rule which allowed it to avoid conducting two trials.
The Commonwealth will now do one of two things: either bring probation revocation hearings prior to the criminal trial based on the criminal activity itself and not the conviction, thereby eviscerating the protection to the probationer, or to simply present the evidence of the underlying criminal activity at the probation revocation hearing thereby forcing the Commonwealth to put on two trials.
LARSEN, J., joins this dissenting opinion.