Commonwealth v. Sestina

47 Pa. D. & C.3d 232, 1987 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 126
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Warren County
DecidedOctober 20, 1987
Docketno. 388 of 1986
StatusPublished

This text of 47 Pa. D. & C.3d 232 (Commonwealth v. Sestina) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Warren County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Sestina, 47 Pa. D. & C.3d 232, 1987 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 126 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1987).

Opinion

WOLFE, J.,

Defendant was jury-convicted on June 17, 1987, on one count of operating a motor vehicle while his blood alcohol content was .10 percent or greater under section 3731(a)(4) of the Motor Vehicle Code and one count of violation of section 3745(a) of the Motor Vehicle Code, being involved in an accident doing damage to unattended property.

[233]*233Defendant filed timely post-trial motions for new trial and/or in arrest of judgment which were denied on August 6, 1987.

On September 4, 1987, imposition of sentence was imposed on defendant to pay a fine of $300 and stand committed to the Warren County Prison for a minimum period of 48 hours to a maximum period of six months. The sentence imposition was deferred pending defendant’s appeal results.

Defendant’s pretrial motion for suppression which was denied and his post-trial motions are bottomed in two arguments, (1) lack of jurisdiction of the arresting officer and (2) lack of corpus delicti.

FACTS

The facts leading to defendant’s arrest are not in dispute. On November 13, 1986, at approximately 2:21 a.m. the arresting officer, James R. Leichtenberger, of the Warren Borough Police Department, wás dispatched to a traffic accident at or near the intersection of Conewango Avenue and Quaker Hill Road in Warren. Upon his arrival the officer observed a damaged speed-limit sign, a severely damaged U.S. mailbox and a utility pole leaning and broken several feet above the ground. An individual whose residence was near the scene of the damage advised the officer a vehicle was responsible for the damage and had left prior to the officer’s arrival and described the vehicle as a gray sedan.

The arresting officer and his companion located a damaged blue and gray Chrysler vehicle parked in front of apartment number J-2 at 1284 Conewango Avenue, which is in Conewango Township, Warren County, and through the police dispatcher learned the vehicle was registered in the name of defendant. Thereupon, the arresting officer telephoned defen[234]*234dant at his apartment and asked him to come to the vehicle, which defendant did; and upon arrival the officer, smelling alcoholic beverages on defendant, made inquiry if he were involved in the accident on Conewango Avenue near Quaker Hill Road, which defendant acknowledged, and further inquired if defendant had been consuming alcoholic beverages to which defendant replied in the affirmative being about a six-pack of beer. Defendant was asked if he had consumed anything alcoholic since arriving at his apartment. The response was no, and the officer then gave defendant his Miranda rights, requested defendant to submit to a blood-alcohol extraction test, to which defendant consented; and the testing resulted in . 19 percent blood-alcohol content.

Defendant raised no pretrial issues of accusatory interrogation prior to Mirandizing.

JURISDICTION

Defendant argues because the arrest of defendant was perfected outside of the borough of Warren, to-wit, Conewango Township, 'by a Warren borough police officer investigating a vehicle accident occurring in Warren borough, the arrest is void because the consent given by the commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, as published in “The Pennsylvania Bulletin,” vol. 13, no. 8, Saturday, February 19, 1983, did not satisfy the requirements of the act of June 15, 1982, P.L. 512 (42 PaC.S. §8953[a][4]) which requires the consent be given by the “chief law enforcement officer,” which in this case, by definition, (section 8951) is the commanding officer of the Pennsylvania State Police installation which regularly provides primary police service to the political subdivision.

In short, defendant argues the commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police had no authority to [235]*235preempt the authority of the commanding officer of the Warren barracks to give consent to the Warren borough police to perfect an arrest in the state police primary jurisdiction. The argument is this consent must, by definition, come from the sergeant of the barracks that has the duty and authority to patrol municipalities in Warren County other than Warren borough, or if not from the sergeant at a minimum from the Pennsylvania State Police Command at Erie which encompasses within its jurisdiction Warren County.

Section 8951 defines “chief law enforcement officer” in the following manner:

“The head of a duly constituted municipal law enforcement agency which regularly provides primary police services to a political subdivision or, in the absence of any such municipal law enforcement agency, the commanding officer of the Pennsylvania State Police installation which regularly provides primary police services to the political subdivision.”

Section 8953(a) provides, in addressing statewide municipal police jurisdiction, as the general rule:

“Any duly employed municipal municipal police officer who is within this commonwealth, but beyond the territorial limits of his primary jurisdiction, shall have the power and authority to enforce the laws of this commonwealth or otherwise perform the functions of that office as if enforcing those laws or performing those functions within the territorial limits of his primary jurisdiction in the following cases:

“(4) Where the officer has obtained the prior consent of the chief law enforcement officer, or a person authorized by him to give consent, of the organized law enforcement agency which provides [236]*236primary police services to a political subdivision which is beyond the officer’s primary jurisdiction to enter the other jurisdiction for the purpose of conducting official duties which arise from official matters within his primary jurisdiction.”

Daniel F. Dunn, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, gave notice, effective immediately, February 18, 1983, for the purpose of Act 141 of 1982, 42 Pa.C.S. §8951-8954, that:

“The commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, as the head and executive officer of said organization, declares on behalf of all commanding officers. of state police installations, which regularly provide primary police services to political subdivisions, that the consent required by Section 8953(a)(4) of Act 141, 42 Pa.C.S. §8953(a)(4), is hereby given to municipal police officers to enter the political subdivisions for which the state police' provides primary police services, for the purpose of conducting official duties which arise from official matters within the municipal police officer’s primary jurisdiction.

“The commissioner also declares, on behalf of all commanding officers of state police installations, which regularly provide primary police services to political subdivisions, that the authority to give the specific consent, required by section 8953(a)(1) of Act 141, 42 Pa.C.S. §8953(a)(l), for a municipal police officer to serve an arrest or search warrant in a political subdivision for which the state police provides primary police services, shall exist with the officer-in-charge of the installation at the time the request is made.”

The commonwealth agrees the sergeant at the state police barracks in Warren County did not give any consent to the arresting officer, James Leichtenberger, nor did his command station at [237]*237Eñe, and therefore relies on the consent by the Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 Pa. D. & C.3d 232, 1987 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 126, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-sestina-pactcomplwarren-1987.