Court Opinion

ID: 9693926
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 17:09:54.908212+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:52.459941
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion by
Watkins, J.:
I concur in the majority opinion but would answer affirmatively the other question raised by this appeal. The presentment of the investigating Grand Jury and the indictment subsequently found thereon should be quashed.
The instrumentality of an investigating Grand Jury by its very nature, unless strictly and rigidly circumscribed by the Court, lends itself to persecution and abuse. Its unbridled use may well result in grave injustice.
It is well established that the authority of an investigating Grand Jury is limited by the scope of the petition which caused its impanelling. Commonwealth v. Soloff, 175 Pa. Superior Ct. 423, 107 A. 2d 179; Grand Jury Investigation of Western State Penitentiary, 173 Pa. Superior Ct. 197, 96 A. 2d 189; In re Dauphin County Grand Jury Investigation Proceedings (No. 1), 332 Pa. 289, 2 A. 2d 783. An examination of the Attorney General’s petition requesting the impanelling of the Grand Jury (par. 6) alleges that “members of the said Commission . . . unlawfully misbehave *236themselves in public office by wilfully, knowingly and corruptly permitting the purchase of supplies and materials and the letting of contracts for materials and supplies without requiring competitive bidding . . The entire plan as outlined by the Attorney General was to ferret out criminal violations involving the Commission and Manu-Mine as the same related to the construction of the Northeastern Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The Attorney General reserved the right to expand and enlarge upon the scope of the Grand Jury investigation by supplemental petition or petitions but the record discloses no request to enlarge upon the scope of the investigation. Nowhere in this petition is there any allegation involving the present defendant or the subject matter presently under review. We cannot say that under this petition the investigating grand jury was empowered to examine the Turnpike Commission in every and all phases of its activity in order to determine whether any member of the Commission breached either a positive statutory duty or the negligent performance of any discretionary act, regardless of relationship to the system of crime or crimes complained of. . Neither can we say that the court-.below conferred upon the Grand Jury any investigatory authority more sweeping or unbridled than was sought for in the Attorney General’s petition. While in some states the power of the Grand Jury to investigate is virtually unlimited, we have imposed definite limitations upon its investigatorial powers. See McNair’s Petition, 324 Pa. 48, 187 A. 498.
While the scope of its investigation is wide, the activities of the Grand Jury are restricted by the charge of the court and then under- prescribed limitations. McNair’s Petition, Supra; Commonwealth v. Hubbs (No. 1), 137 Pa. Superior Ct. 229, 8 A. 2d 611; Commonwealth v. Soloff, supra. An examination of the *237charge given to the Grand Jury by the court below, however, discloses that, while the charge of bribery and conspiracy were defined, no explanation or definition was given on the common law crime of malfeasance, misfeasance or nonfeasance in office. We are at a loss to explain this omission. The only possible explanation may be found in the tenor of the Attorney General’s petition in which the main emphasis was placed on bribery and conspiracy. This omission set the stage for the defective presentment which was handed down in the present case. In our view, the presentment did not indicate the commission of a crime or a probable cause therefor. The presentment read as follows:
“Mr. McSorley did cause one Daniel J. Dalto, an employee of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to absent himself from normal duties in order to place himself at the disposal of and for the sole use of employment of Thos. J. Evans, his guests and others at a time when Mr. Evans was no longer affiliated with the Turnpike Commission. This act was apparently committed during the period of June or July 1955 and continued through March of 1956, a period of approximately 8 months. It appears that the said Mr. Dalto was paid a sum of money in the amount of figures $2,800 by the Turnpike Commission for which the Turnpike Commission received no material or other thing of value.”
Nowhere can we find that the Grand Jury found that there was reasonable cause to believe that the defendant acted from a corrupt motive. It merely stated that “In consequence of the foregoing, the members of this Special Grand Jury (with at least twelve members having voted in the affirmative) do hereby find probable cause for the following: C. The charge of the crime of malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance as *238applied to an officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in respect to the following: (a) G. Frank Mc-Sorley.” It then followed np with the request that an indictment be drawn charging defendant with the crime of malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance in that he “knowingly, wilfully and corruptly procured, permitted and allowed Daniel J. Dalto” to work for and render services to Thomas J. Evans.
It is safe to assume that the same witnesses appeared before the indicting Grand Jury as appeared before the special Grand Jury. Upon the same testimony if the investigating Grand Jury could find no probable cause, it is difficult to see how the indicting Grand Jury could have remedied that defect.
Compounding the omissions referred to were the improprieties of the prosecuting officers in being present during the deliberations of the Grand Jury, the enlargement of its investigation and the usurpation of the court’s prerogative in furnishing legal instructions to it. The presentment was made on January IS, 1957. On January 16, 1957, two prosecuting officers' entered the room upon the apparent request of the foreman, when, inter alia, the following colloquy took place:
“Foreman of the Grand Jury: Mr. District Attorney, Mr. Deputy Attorney General, the members .of the Grand Jury would like a further explanation of the crime of malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance in office by an officer of the Commonwealth.”
The minutes of the Grand Jury reveal that it was the Deputy Attorney General who enlarged the scope of the investigation when he said:
“Reducing everything to the very simplest of language, as an investigating Grand Jury you have to be satisfied whether there is sufficient evidence amounting to probable cause for returning a presentment against certain individuals; and then, describe, as best *239you can, what the areas are, and what you think the charges should be.
“The formulizing of all that will fall on the ' shoulders of the local prosecutor. Yours is informal, unofficial accusation.
“I just suggest this to you, that the best way to do it, if you find the evidence is there, is to make the presentment. If the evidence is there, to the amount of probable cause, you are discharging your duties by making a presentment. What happens from that point on is in the hands of some other tribunal, as to whether all the presentments will go ahead in the manner that you have actually set them out.
“But your duty is to look over the evidence, look and determine in your own minds whether sufficient cause to make out probable cause of a criminal act of any of the people who have been described by the various and numerous witnesses that have come before you. It is as simple as that.”
From the time of Blaekstone, it has always been the practice that the presiding judge must give whatever legal instructions are required. If the Grand Jury have any doubt with respect to the propriety of admitting any part of the evidence offered to them, they may request advice from the court. See á Blaekstone Commentaries 303, 305. If the court is to instruct the Grand Jury on subjects for its consideration, it then follows that this body cannot receive instructions from any other source on questions which are to be determined by it. The Grand Jury is not the arm of the prosecuting officials but that of the court and any attempts to interfere in matters exclusively belonging to the court cannot be sanctioned.
It also appears from this colloquy that some instructions have been given previously in the Grand Jury room on the crime of malfeasance, misfeasance and non*240feasance in office. The foreman requested a further explanation. Considering the fact that the court below gave no instructions on this matter, the previous instruction must have come only from the prosecuting officers. To set a precedent in allowing such illegal and prejudicial practices would be tantamount to revitalizing the evils and abuses of star chamber proceedings which were so odious to our forefathers. This is a matter of serious concern which violates substantive rights of every citizen who might be subject to a presentment, indictment and subsequent prosecution for a crime. The function of the prosecuting officer is to aid the grand jurors in the examination of witnesses and to give such general instructions as they may require, but he may not attempt to influence their action or be present when they are deliberating on the evidence or voting on a matter under investigation. Commonwealth v. Bradney, 126 Pa. 199, 17 A. 600; Commonwealth v. Brownmiller, 141 Pa. Superior Ct. 107, 14 A. 2d 907; Commonwealth v. Judge Smart, 368 Pa. 630, 84 A. 2d 782.
One other irregularity crept into these proceedings. An examination of the speeches delivered by the Governor on the eve of convening the Grand Jury and the following evening disclose a disturbing interference with orderly judicial process. The speeches themselves indicate without any doubt the telling effect it had upon those who heard or saw the program. Excerpts from these speeches are set out in a footnote hereto.1 *241The stations carrying these programs admittedly had a wide coverage of Harrisburg and Dauphin County and *242were beard and viewed by large numbers of residents of the area. The statements of the Governor were *243quoted repeatedly by the daily press, radio and television. It would be a tenuous assumption to state *244that members of the investigating Grand Jury or prospective members of the indicting Grand Jury and petit *245jury did not bear or see these broadcasts. While the court below stated that it had no reason to believe that the Grand Jury disregarded the admonitions relative to political speeches, it can be safely said that the indicting Grand Jury or the trial jury did not have the benefit of the court’s admonition. Coming, as it did, from the Governor himself) the speeches undoubtedly had a forceful and prejudicial effect which tainted the proceedings. And while we do not ascribe any evil motive to the Governor in mailing these speeches at this time, we do say that they had a judicially undesirable effect when considerations of fairness and due process are involved and when the unbiased deliberations of an investigating Grand Jury were of utmost importance. ....
We believe" that the irregularities referred to interfered with the substantial rights of the accused. Under the circumstances here presented, we cannot subscribe to the contention of the Commonwealth that these irregularities were cured by the action of the indicting Grand Jury because it had actual information before it, which information was placed in the presentment. Nor is it much solace to state that the use of the min*246utes of the Grand Jury was improper. We cannot say that it was.
The motion to quash the presentment should have been granted under these circumstances. Failing so to do, the indictment should have fared no better. Cf. Commonwealth v. Gross, 172 Pa. Superior Ct. 85, 92 A. 2d 251. The extraneous factors here involved make out a clear case detrimental to the substantial rights of the defendant.

 Speech of October 22, 1956 made in television broadcast:
“You’ve seen the headlines — you’ll see more. Investigation meanwhile goes on. The latest example of how the Republican leaders did business is the Turnpike scandal. A special Grand Jury is now investigating this development. We’re proud of our Turnpike, justifiably so. It’s one of the great highways of the world. And we have a right to be angry that anyone would use it to swin*241die. Yet this has been done. Certain people set out to steal $20,-000,000 from it and they got $9,000,000 before we could stop them. Their front was a company called Manu-Mine Research and Development. Their officers were close relatives of the Chairman of the Republican Turnpike Commission — his son, his nephew and his niece by marriage. Together they owned almost all the stock in the Company. Now how did they go about getting this $9,000,000 from us.
“It was really very easy. Without competitive bidding they got a job digging holes in the ground and then filling them up again. Experts found these holes were useless and the prices charged for digging them and filling them were outrageous.
“As soon as we found out about this our Democratic Commissioners asked the Attorney General to investigate the matter. And Attorney General Cohen petitioned for a Grand Jury investigation. The investigation is now taking place.
“Now let’s go back for a moment to examine exactly how ManuMine and its officers who knew the right Republican leaders, pulled off this swindle.
“Manu-Mine set up shop modestly with a nominal capital of $4,300 and as I told you before we stopped the deal, it had been paid over $9,000,000 by the Turnpike Commission. The secret of its success as we’ve seen was simple — Manu-Mine had an inside track with the Turnpike Commission and as a result it did 96.8% of its business with the Turnpike. Now, on most jobs like this one that Manu-Mine worked on, you have competitive bidding. ManuMine never had to bid against anybody, it never had to negotiate, it was employed as a consultant. As a consultant it recommended itself as contractor and then as an inspector of its work that it performed.
“I have here a report by Manu-Mine and the Turnpike Commission. This report cost us $117,000.00 and the gist of it was to propose a contract with — you guessed it — Manu-Mine. Now about that job. Experts say that it was unnecessary. It was made work and the price was jacked up sky-high. Now this isn’t what I say or what anyone in my administration says — this is in the impartial report by the Pierce Management Company of Scranton.
“Here is the report and here is what it says:
*242‘In our calculations as to the reasonable unit price for drilling, we approached it from two view points. One, assumed contractor-controlled equipment. Two, assumed contractor-rented equipment. In both cases, basing the volume of drilling upon the original estimates, we allowed for overhead, a reasonable profit and the cost of casing.
•With contractor-owned equipment we estimated a reasonable unit price to be $4.77 per linear foot. With rented equipment, we estimated a reasonable unit price to be $5.95 per linear foot’.
“Manu-Mine was paid $12.50 per linear foot. Now you know the story. As much of it as we know of it. You’ll know more when the Grand Jury reports its finding. But the important thing to remember is this is no isolated case: that the Republican leaders have an unfortunate history of scandal that is now coming out after years of being covered up. We’ve only scratched the surface. We will not stop until we have made sure that the guilty have been found out and brought to justice. But more than that we will introduce a Legislative program in Harrisburg which will see to it that such dishonest and improper practices can never happen again and that's why I ask you to vote for a Democratic House of Representatives and a Democratic Senate in Harrisburg this fall so that we can pass the legislation needed to prevent dishonesty in your State Government * * *”
Statements of October 23, 1956 made in television broadcast:
Don Wear: “John'Scotzin would you begin questioning Governor Leader tonight.”
John Scotzin: “Governor, I caught you on a television program last night. I’m not sure what Station it was — it may have been this one.' It was a tailend of a political film in which you renewed all your charges about Manu-Mines of Reading fleecing the Turnpike Commission of more than $9,000,000 under Republican control. The film reminded me of a statement you made early last September when you sent Attorney General Cohen in the Dauphin County Court to ask for a Grand Jury investigation of these charges. At that time you said you were sorry to break these charges on the eve of a political campaign and that you said this wasn’t a matter concerning Republicans or Democrats, that all you wanted to do was get the truth., -Obviously you’re out to make political hay in *243a film like you had last night. Now how do you reconcile these two divergent statements?”
Governor Leader: “Well, I think the people, John, are entitled to know the facts. And when there is conspiracy or at least an alleged conspiracy in Pennsylvania, that some group full of wilful politicians are trying to lift from the Turnpike Commission more than $9,000,000, I think the people of this State have a right to know the facts. We’re laying those facts before them and I think it’s one of the things that — I guess almost everything, in spite of the fact that we sometimes try, I think almost everything that an official or governmental official does can be looked upon as politics and I believe that the people ought to know the facts in this case. There are a lot of people involved and we’ve laid the facts before them as ably as we can. But certainly there’s a great deal more to this- than I’ve laid before them in that television film and I think that the people of this state are going to be completely and thoroughly shocked at what happened. The moral tone and the ethical standards of this government as exemplified by what happened down there at the Turnpike Commission when they get the results of the Grand Jury that is now convened here in Dauphin County.”-
Don Wear: “Go ahead John.”
John Scotzin: “Governor, your statements at this instance, plus your film raised a question in my mind that in view of the fact that the Dauphin County Court turned over this matter to the Grand Jury yesterday. Is there any question of this case being pre-judged'in. your mind or influencing the Jurors who are considering it right now? They go home and listen to television Governor.”
Governor Leader: “No, I don’t think there is any danger.”
John Scotzin: “No?”
Governor Leader: “Because the information that we put in there is already common knowledge, has already been published all over the State in newspapers. We haven’t given any of the penetrating, the depth of information that are being presented to the Grand Jury. This is just superficial compared -to the things that will be forthcoming, it seems to me, to the Grand Jury. We have been very cautious. There’s a great body of information that we have at our fingertips obviously or we would not have asked for this Investigating Grand Jury here under, incidentally, a ■ Repub-' lican District Attorney in Dauphin' County. We would not have *244asked for it if we did not have a great body of information. What we have said so far we have merely scratched the surface but I do believe the people of this Commonwealth are entitled to the information and ought to know the facts.”
John Seotzin: “But my point Governor is, when you keep renewing your charges they are bound to have some influence on these jurors who are analyzing this evidence. Let me give an illustration. What if I went out and interviewed a hundred people downtown and I published the results of what they thought about this case. Say some of these decided Manu-Mines was guilty and some of these decided they were not guilty.”
Governor Leader: “They wouldn’t have the facts John. The facts that have been presented so far have been very limited. It’s up to the Grand Jury to determine whether or hot they are guilty but the superficial facts that we presented there are just the beginning. There’s no doubt that we haven’t backed them up with all the great, vast body of information that has been collected over the past six or nine months and that’s the information that’s now being presented to the Grand Jury. I have more faith in those members that they’re going to judge the case either on the basis of what they’ve read in your newspaper or what they’ve seen in my telecast.”
John Seotzin: “One more question.”
Don Wear: “Go ahead, John.”
John Seotzin: “If I publish those facts that I found in the poll, I think that the Dauphin County Court would take a dim view of me and probably call me in and reprimand me for that on the basis that it may be prejudicial.”
Governor Leader: “Well, I don’t think — I don’t think they’re going to be influenced that easy. If I didn’t believe that the great body of information we have was enough to — ah—it makes a few things that you said in your papers and that I said in that telecast look ah — small because we have only scratched the surface. It’s all superficial. The real case is being presented down there, I’m sure is being presented ably and well by one of the former Assistant District Attorneys of the City of Philadelphia. There is great and vast body of information and research and investigation and facts backing up that case and I have great confidence in the way it’s being presented and the ability of the Grand Jury to interpret it and to come to a logical decision.”
*245John Seotzin: “Governor, conceivably the inquiring Grand Jury could determine that you have no case and throw it out and then nobody is’going to be indicted?”
Governor Leader: “Well, yes it’s conceivable.”
John Seotzin: “The judge’in his charge to the Jury told them there should be no presumptions of the guilt or innocence of anybody in these proceedings.”
Governor Leader: • “I guess that’s the way they all start and that’s the way law — the tradition of our law and justice in this country is said. And I think it will be interesting to see the developments in that Grand Jury and also be interesting to watch the developments in the Delaware Joint Toll Bridge investigation where there was also a lot of- money being spent, extravagances and where they had Miss TNT from Gay" Paree ón the payroll as a part time secretary.”