Court Opinion

ID: 9640972
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:20:01.650565+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:34.308985
License: Public Domain

DEL SOLE, Judge,
concurring.
I join the Opinion authored by my colleague, Judge Kelly. I wish to further support his analysis. The filing of an appeal following a summary conviction and sentence by a district justice requires a trial de novo, even when the conviction is the result of a plea.
In Commonwealth, Department of Transportation v. Tarnopolski, 533 Pa. 549, 626 A.2d 138 (1993), the Supreme Court reaffirmed this procedure. The reference in ftn. 4 of that Opinion to the requirements of Commonwealth v. Khorey, 521 Pa. 1, 555 A.2d 100 (1989) applying to a post-sentence withdrawal of a guilty plea only occur where the withdrawal is sought before the district justice who accepted the plea. It does not require that, on appeal to the Court of Common Pleas, the Khorey standards be met. The filing of the appeal from the district justice court to the trial court requires a trial on the merits, irrespective of how the conviction was obtained.