Commonwealth v. Kopicz

840 A.2d 342, 2003 Pa. Super. 499, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4574
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 19, 2003
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 840 A.2d 342 (Commonwealth v. Kopicz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Kopicz, 840 A.2d 342, 2003 Pa. Super. 499, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4574 (Pa. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinions

MONTEMURO, J.

¶ 1 In these consolidated direct appeals, Appellant Robert Kopicz challenges the constitutionality of the Registration of Sexual Offender’s Act, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9791 et seq., commonly known as Megan’s Law II. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

¶2 In the summer of 2001, Detective Thomas Yeich of the Berks County District Attorney’s Office filed five criminal complaints against Appellant charging him with the sexual molestation of five minors. The cases were consolidated for a plea hearing held on November 9, 2001, during [345]*345which Appellant entered open guilty pleas to three counts of indecent assault, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 3126(a)(7), two counts of corruption of minors, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 6301(a)(1), and one count of endangering the welfare of children, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 4304.1 Because a conviction of 18 Pa. C.S.A. § 3126(a)(7), indecent assault of a minor less than 13 years of age, is a predicate offense triggering an adjudication of sexually violent predator status under Megan’s Law II, see 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9795.1, 9795.4(a), the trial court ordered the State Sexual Offenders Assessment Board (Board) to evaluate whether Appellant is a sexually violent predator.

¶ 3 On March 22, 2002, Appellant filed a Motion for Extraordinary Relief challenging the constitutionality of Megan’s Law II on several bases, and seeking suppression of certain psychiatric records utilized by the Board in its assessment. The trial court summarily denied Appellant’s motion.2 On March 25, 2002, following a sentencing and assessment hearing, Appellant was sentenced to an aggregate 3 to 8 years’ imprisonment, followed by 5 years’ probation. In addition, the court found Appellant to be a sexually violent predator and, accordingly, subject to the registration, notification, and counseling provisions of the Act. Appellant filed a timely post sentence motion challenging, once again, the constitutionality of the Act, and seeking modification of his sentence; it was promptly denied by the trial court. These appeals follow.

¶ 4 On appeal, Appellant challenges the constitutionality of Megan’s Law II on ten bases:

1) the Act violates Appellant’s due process rights by subjecting him to the possibility of increased punishment without a jury determination pursuant to Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 [120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435] (2000);
2) the Act violates Appellant’s due process rights by subjecting him to increased punishment based solely on his mental status;
3) the Act violates Appellant’s due process rights because the definition of “sexually violent predator” is unconstitutionally vague;
4) the assessment hearing provision of the Act violates Appellant’s rights [346]*346against self-incrimination and to equal protection under the law;
5) the public notification provision of the Act violates Appellant’s right to privacy;
6) the Act violates Appellant’s right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment;
7) the Act violates the separation of powers doctrine;
8) the Act violates Appellant’s right to be free from double jeopardy;
9) the Act violates Article 1 § 10 of the Pennsylvania Constitution by subjecting Appellant to prosecution without an indictment; and
10) the Act violates Article 8 § 3 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, providing that no bill be passed containing more than one subject.

Additionally, Appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress certain psychiatric records, protected under confidentiality laws, utilized by the Board in its assessment.3 After a thorough review, we conclude that Appellant’s claims are meritless.

¶ 5 Originally enacted in 1995, Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law seeks “to protect the safety and general welfare of people of this Commonwealth by providing for registration and community notification regarding sexually violent predators who are about to be released from custody and will live in or near their neighborhood.” 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9791(b). The Act requires persons convicted of certain enumerated predicate offenses to register with the Pennsylvania State Police upon their release from prison and annually verify their residence for a period of 10 years. See 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9795.1, 9796(b). The state police then forward this data, along with the offender’s photograph and fingerprints, to the chief of police of the locality where the offender resides. Id. at §§ 9795.3(4), 9795.2(c). Persons adjudicated to be “sexually violent predators” must register with the state police for their lifetime, verify their residence on a quarterly basis, and attend monthly counseling sessions. Id. at §§ 9795.1(b), 9796(a), 9799.4. Moreover,

[f]or sexually violent predators, the police chief in turn notifies the individual’s neighbors, as well as day care operators and school officials within the municipality. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9798(b). The data sent to these recipients includes the offender’s name, address, offense, and photograph (if available), as well as the fact that he has been determined to be a sexually violent predator, “which determination has or has not been terminated as of a date certain.”[ ] See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9798(a). The sexually violent predator’s name and address, including any subsequent change of address, is also sent to the victim of the offense, until the victim requests that such notification be terminated. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9797.

Commonwealth v. Williams (Williams II), 574 Pa. 487, 832 A.2d 962, 967 (2003) (footnote omitted).

¶ 6 In 1999, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck the sexually violent predator provisions of the Act, finding them to be constitutionally invalid. Commonwealth v. Williams (Williams I), 557 Pa.285, 733 A.2d 593 (1999), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 1077, 120 S.Ct. 792, 145 L.Ed.2d 668 (2000). Under the original statute, a person convicted of one of the predicate sexual offenses was presumed to be a sexually violent predator, and bore the burden of rebutting that presumption with clear and convincing evidence. 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9794 (deleted). Moreover, the Act mandated an increased maximum term of lifetime im[347]*347prisonment for those designated as sexually violent predators. Id. at § 9799.4(a) (deleted). The Williams I Court explained,

Given our view, ... that the proceedings set forth in the Act to determine whether one is a sexually violent predator is a separate factual determination, the end result of which is the imposition of criminal punishment, [i.e., an increased maximum term of imprisonment for the offender’s lifetime] we hold that anything less than the full panoply of the relevant protections which due process guarantees is violative of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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Bluebook (online)
840 A.2d 342, 2003 Pa. Super. 499, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4574, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-kopicz-pasuperct-2003.