PA Supreme Court: Separate Conviction for Related Traffic Ticket Bars Prosecution for All Other Charges

Criminal Defense Lawyer Zak Goldstein

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided the case of Commonwealth v. Johnson, holding that a defendant cannot be tried for a felony case if his traffic offense that arose out of the same criminal transaction was adjudicated. This decision is significant and it could result in hundreds of felony cases being dismissed. As a practical matter, it is unclear on how much of an effect it will have on future cases because the Philadelphia Police Department no longer issues a traffic citation when they also arrest a defendant for a non-traffic offense. Nonetheless, this will have a positive impact on many individuals who have outstanding felony cases in Philadelphia.  

Commonwealth v. Johnson

The defendant was stopped for a traffic stop and was charged with driving with a suspended license, possession with intent to deliver (“PWID”), and the knowing and intentional possession of a controlled substance (“K/I”). The defendant was subsequently found guilty, in absentia, of the summary traffic offense. His other charges were not adjudicated. The defendant then subsequently filed a motion to dismiss arguing that 18 Pa.C.S. § 110 (“Section 110”) requires that the government bring all known charges against a defendant arising out of a single criminal episode occurring within the same judicial district in a single proceeding. In other words, the defendant argued that when he was found guilty of the traffic offense, he could no longer be prosecuted because he had already been found guilty of a criminal offense that arose from this transaction. The trial court was not persuaded and denied his motion. The defendant then filed an interlocutory appeal. 

Some insight into how Philadelphia Courts operate is necessary to understand this decision. First, Philadelphia Traffic Court was merged into Municipal Court in 2013 and thus became the Traffic Division of the Municipal Court. Next, in Philadelphia, the Municipal Court has jurisdiction to adjudicate criminal offenses that are punishable up to five years. As an example, a defendant cannot plead guilty to an F1 Robbery in front of a Municipal Court judge because the court does not have jurisdiction to accept that guilty plea. Further, a defendant cannot have a trial for F1 Robbery for the same reason. In the instant case, the defendant was charged with PWID and because he was accused of distributing heroin, the maximum sentence (assuming it was his first PWID conviction) was fifteen years’ incarceration. Consequently, the Municipal Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the defendant’s PWID charge at the trial stage. However, the Municipal Court did have jurisdiction to adjudicate his K/I charge because the maximum sentence he could have received was three years’ incarceration (assuming he had a prior K/I conviction) and thus that charge fell within the Municipal Court’s jurisdiction.

On appeal at the Superior Court, the Commonwealth acknowledged that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Perfetto held that Section 110 generally prohibits the government from proceeding with a prosecution subject to the jurisdiction of the Philadelphia Municipal Court. The Commonwealth conceded that they could not prosecute the defendant for the K/I charge because it fell within the Municipal Court’s jurisdiction. However, the Commonwealth argued that because the Municipal Court lacked jurisdiction over the PWID, then the trial court was correct in denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss for that claim. In defense of this position, the Commonwealth invoked Section 112(1) of the Crimes Code which states “[a] prosecution is not a bar within the meaning of [Section 110] under any of the following circumstances…(1) [t]he former prosecution was before a court which lacked jurisdiction over the defendant of the offense.” In other words, their argument was that Section 112 applied to the defendant’s case because Municipal Court could not adjudicate the defendant’s PWID charge and it was irrelevant that his traffic case had already been adjudicated.   

The Superior Court was persuaded by the Commonwealth’s argument and affirmed the trial court’s decision with respect to the PWID charge. The defendant then lodged an application for re-argument which was denied by the Superior Court. The defendant then subsequently filed a petition for allowance of appeal to have the Pennsylvania Supreme Court hear the case. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Decision

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the lower courts’ decisions. The issue for this decision is which offense applies for Section 112. Is it the first offense (in this case the traffic charge) or the subsequent offense (the PWID charge)? The defendant argued that Section 112 bars subsequent prosecutions when the previous court had jurisdiction over the first case whereas the Commonwealth argued that prosecution should not be barred if the original court does not have jurisdiction over the subsequent offense. 

In making its decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court looked at the legislative history of Sections 110 and 112, appellate decisions that addressed these rules, and it analyzed the Model Penal Code which Section 112 was derived from. Based on this analysis, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed with the defendant and determined that Section 112 was not applicable to the PWID charge because the Traffic Division did have jurisdiction to hear the defendant’s traffic case. As such, because Section 112 did not apply to his case, Section 110 did apply to the defendant’s PWID charge and therefore his case will be remanded back to the trial court for formal dismissal.  

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Goldstein Mehta LLC Criminal Defense Lawyers

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