Court Opinion

ID: 9639004
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:01:21.212706+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:11.387110
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Judge,
dissenting.
I agree with so much of the Majority Opinion as concludes that Orick Alston should have been sentenced as a second offender. Alston’s acceptance into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program after being charged with driving under the influence (DUI) exposes him to sentence as a second offender after a guilt determination on a second DUI charge. Commonwealth v. Becker, 366 Pa.Super. 54, 530 A.2d 888 (1987).
I must dissent from that portion of the Majority Opinion which seeks to review the voluntariness of Alston’s guilty plea. As the Commonwealth points out in their Reply Brief, we have before us the Commonwealth’s appeal from an illegal sentence, not Alston’s appeal from the denial of a motion to withdraw a guilty plea. I do not believe we can reach this issue on this appeal.
If the issue of the voluntariness of Alston’s plea were before us, I would reject his claim for the reasons set forth in the Opinion of Administrative Judge Edward J. Blake, *400filed February 9, 1989. As Judge Blake correctly observed, the record in this case establishes that Alston did receive notice that the Commonwealth intended to seek the application of the recidivist provision of the Drunk Driving Law prior to sentencing.
Prior to the imposition of sentence on February 18, 1987, the assigned prosecutor specifically requested that Alston be sentenced as a second offender because of the prior A.R.D. matter. N.T. February 18, 1987, pages 5-7. The prosecutor also objected to the 48 hour to one year sentence immediately after it was imposed. Id. at page 9.
On March 2, 1987, Alston filed his Motion to Withdraw Guilty Plea and/or Motion to Vacate, Reconsider, and Modify Sentence. In that motion, Alston did not allege that he was unaware that the mandatory sentence for second offenders applied to him. Rather, the basis for the withdrawal motion was that the plea had not been voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently entered because Alston’s prior attorney did not advise him that his operator’s license would be suspended for a period of one year following his conviction. Motion, paras. 5-6, R.R., page 13a. The motion was denied by the trial court on March 6, 1987. Alston took no appeal from the order denying his motion to withdraw guilty plea.
Based upon my independent review of the record, I agree with Judge Blake that Alston received ample notice of the Commonwealth’s intention to seek application of the recidivist provision of the Drunk Driving Law, 75 Pa.C.S. § 3731(e)(2) prior to the imposition of sentence in this case. Without taking a cross-appeal, Alston may not raise an issue already decided adversely to him. Appeal of Pesante, 82 Pa.Cmwlth. 242, 476 A.2d 474 (1984). Moreover, only those issues included in post-verdict motions will be considered preserved for appellate review. Commonwealth v. Gravely, 486 Pa. 194, 404 A.2d 1296 (1979).
The Commonwealth correctly argues that Alston must initiate appropriate proceedings in the trial court, if he wishes to litigate a basis for withdrawing his plea that has *401not been previously presented to that court. I join the Majority Opinion in deciding that the judgment of sentence must be vacated. I dissent from that portion of the Majority Opinion which would direct the trial court to allow withdrawal of the guilty plea.
Based upon the certified record before us, this case should be remanded to the trial court for the imposition of the mandatory minimum sentence set forth in 75 Pa.C.S. § 3731(e)(l)(ii).