Court Opinion

ID: 9756161
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:10:35.429087+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:56:15.605094
License: Public Domain

DEL SOLE, Judge:
The Appellees in this case were each charged on August 14, 1984, with one count of riot and one count of failure of disorderly persons to disperse upon official order. The charges against the Appellees, who are prison inmates, result from their involvement in the obstruction of a prison guard’s attempt to lock up another inmate who had stabbed an officer in the dining hall of the State Correctional Institution in Pittsburgh. On November 27, 1984, each Appellee made an oral motion to dismiss on the grounds *29that the charges were de minimis, which was granted by the trial court. The Commonwealth appeals from this Order.
At the hearing on Appellees’ pre-trial motions to dismiss, the trial judge asked the Assistant District Attorney to describe what the case was about. The following exchange took place:
MS. ANGELL: [Assistant District Attorney] Your Honor, it was in the dining room during dinnertime. There was an assault by a prisoner.
THE COURT: Not one of these two individuals?
MS. ANGELL: No. When the officer ordered that the prisoner be taken from the cafeteria and taken into custody, Mr. Jackson then stood up and screamed. He stood up and screamed: Let’s block the aisle. It was at that time that 30 people gathered around him. They blocked the guard from leaving. Mr. Favors then got up and blocked the guard from the other way. There were approximately 60 or 70 prisoners there at that time. It was not one to one or anything like that.
THE COURT: All right. Is that about all there was to it?
MS. ANGELL: Yes.
THE COURT: And if the Commonwealth proves their case, is that what their case is going to be?
MS. ANGELL: Yes.
THE COURT: The motions are granted.
The legislature has provided that a trial judge may exercise discretion to dismiss a case as de minimis under certain conditions. The statute provides:
(a) General Rule — The court shall dismiss a prosecution if, having regard to the nature of the conduct charged to constitute an offense and the nature of the attendant circumstances, it finds that the conduct of the defendant:
(1) was within a customary license or tolerance, neither expressly negative by the person whose interest was *30infringed nor inconsistent with the purpose of the law defining the offense;
(2) did not actually cause or threaten the harm or evil sought to be prevented by the law defining the offense or did so only to an extent too trivial to warrant the condemnation of conviction; or
(3) presents such other extenuations that it cannot reasonably be regarded as envisaged by the General Assembly or other authority in forbidding the offense.
(b)-The court shall not dismiss a prosecution under this section without filing a written statement of its reasons, except that if the attorney for the Commonwealth is the moving party for such dismissal no such written statement need be filed.
18 Pa.C.S.A. § 312.
The trial judge in this case stated that he felt compelled to dismiss the charges against the Appellees in the interests of justice. He cited the facts that both the Appellees were already serving prison terms, had been dealt with administratively by the prison authorities and that the cost of a jury trial would be substantial especially in the light of the increased security measures which would be required. The trial judge found that the Appellees’ conduct did not justify the expense of a trial in light of the facts that the guards’ paths were only temporarily blocked and that the Commonwealth did not intend to present evidence that the Appel-lees’ acts led to violence.
We believe that the trial judge acted within his discretionary powers in the interests of judicial economy in this case. We find no abuse of discretion and we affirm the Order of the trial court.
Order affirmed.
CIRILLO, President Judge, files a dissenting opinion.