Court Opinion

ID: 9640917
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:18:07.974612+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:33.636465
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
dissenting:
The majority states that the preliminary hearing was held as soon as possible after appellant’s arraignment. Maj. opinion at 682 n. 7. This statement is unsupported by the record. Appellant was arraigned on March 10, 1975. His preliminary hearing was not held until June 10. This delay cannot be justified on the ground that the victimized deputies were unavailable to testify because of their injuries until May 21. Under the majority holding in Commonwealth v. Rick, 244 Pa.Super. 33, 366 A.2d 302 (1976), the presence of the deputies was not needed to bind appellant for court, since another police officer could have appeared and summarized their accounts of the incidents. Moreover, even if some delay in conducting the preliminary hearing was warranted so that the victims could testify, a substantial part of the delay still remains unjustified. The record shows that Deputy Ferguson was available to testify by April 30, and that Deputy Gormont was available by May 21. No justification was given for delaying the hearing after Deputy Ferguson became available; as for the delay following May 21, the lower court stated that a preliminary hearing could not be held because the complaining officer, Trooper Behe, was on vacation. Yet, the need for this *558person, who does not seem to have been a material witness, at the hearing is unclear.
Under these circumstances, I do not believe that the preliminary hearing was held as soon as possible. Where there has not been substantial compliance with Rule 140(f), a defendant need not show prejudice for the indictment to be quashed. Commonwealth v. Riley, 260 Pa.Super. 280, 393 A.2d 1263 (1978) (SPAETH, J., dissenting); Commonwealth v. Wansley, 248 Pa.Super. 234, 239, 375 A.2d 73, 76 (1977) (SPAETH, J., concurring); Commonwealth v. DeCosey, 246 Pa.Super. 412, 418, 371 A.2d 905, 907 (1977) (SPAETH, J., concurring). Here, there was not substantial compliance, and the indictments should have been quashed.