Commonwealth v. Sodomsky

137 A.3d 620, 2016 Pa. Super. 84, 2016 WL 1436501, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 223
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 12, 2016
Docket870 MDA 2014
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 137 A.3d 620 (Commonwealth v. Sodomsky) 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. Sodomsky, 137 A.3d 620, 2016 Pa. Super. 84, 2016 WL 1436501, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 223 (Pa. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION BY

OTT, J.:

The Commonwealth appeals the order 1 entered April 25, 2014, in the Berks County Court of Common Pleas, granting the petition , of Kenneth F. Sodomsky to reopen his suppression .hearing for the second time, and suppressing evidence recovered from his computer. On. appeal, the Commonwealth argues the trial . court erred in (1) re-opening the hearing after two prior suppression orders were reversed by this Court on appeal, and (2) suppressing the evidence recovered from Sodomsky’s computer. Because we find the trial court abused, its discretion .in re *622 opening the suppression hearing, we reverse the order of the trial court and remand for further proceedings.

The facts underlying Sodomsky’s suppression issue were summarized by this Court in a prior opinion as follows:

Richard Easting was the senior sales assistant in the technology department of the Circuit City Store located on Woodland Road, Wyomissing, Berks County. Mr. Easting testified that on October 15, 2004, [ ] Kenneth Sodomsky, came to Circuit City and asked Mr. Easting to install an optical drive and DVD burner into his computer. The work order that [Sodomsky] executed that day authorized Circuit City to install and configure the optical drive unit and DVD in his desktop computer.
In accordance with store practice, Mr. Easting summarized to [Sodomsky] “what is done during the installation.” [Sodomsky] was informed that as part of the installation process, the installer would “have to make sure [the DVD burner] works.” There is no indication that [Sodomsky] asked how the DVD burner would be tested or in any manner restricted what procedure could be utilized to confirm the burner’s operability. [Sodomsky] requested that the work be performed on an expedited basis, and Mr. Easting instructed him to return in approximately one hour.
Toby Werner was in the middle of the installation process when Stephen Ric-hert, the head of personal computer repairs at that Circuit City, arrived. Mr. Richert testified that the DVD drive was installed when he arrived in the department, but the software had not yet been installed. Mr. Richert explained that all DVD burners and players were accompanied by software. 2 Mr. Richert testified specifically that at Circuit City, with “every installation” of the hardware, “any supplementary software” was installed both as a courtesy “and to make sure when it leaves the store, we can guarantee that it is working.”
After the software was installed, Mr. Richert performed a general search for a video to test the new DVD drive. More specifically, he testified as follows:
Well, after we installed the software, we did a generic search of the [personal computer (PC) ] where you click on the start menu, you click on search, and this being the [W]indows XP, a search box comes up and it is custom made to this operating system. In this case, this system, it’s about half way down the screen on the left-hand side there’s a search, and you can enter — in this case, you could enter a specific name of a file that you’re looking for and find it.
We weren’t looking for anything specific, so we did a generic search. Below the field where you could enter the name of a file that you are looking for, you can click on the generic boxes listed, picture, movie or if you click it, it does a general search of the whole PC and finds any of that type of objects that you’re looking for. In this case, we clicked movies or video, and it brings up all the different formats of videos.
There are many different types of video formats. There’s M-peg, MPG- *623 4, AVI, Quick Time. Any types of those flies, if used to place on Windows Media Player, which is a pro-gram that’s, inherent to PC when running [W]indows XP or .to the DVD software,, in certain circumstances, if you install the software and it wasn’t installed properly or you didn’t receive notification and you try to play the files or play a DVD movie on the PC, you get distortion that isn’t necessarily seen, right away when you install it.
So, in this case, we wanted to make sure that all types of files were working fine so that you wouldn’t get any type of errors. When you install the different type of software, there’s something called code X. .It’s a little piece of software inside the PC that helps the PC better understand and translate video signals through different players.
So, in this case, if we play a movie file and we get distorted colors or blurring of the image or a ghosting effect where all color is inverted,'.we know there- is a problem with the installation and we have to find it and fix it. If there is a software update, we have to uninstall and reinstall it, if there was an issue.
Mr. Richert testified that once the search button was activated for a given object, the computer automatically loaded the requested files onto the screen, which continued' to - enlarge by itself. Thus, after the search was initiated, Mr. Richert did not manipulate the computer further 'to see the entire list of videos The first few video titles that appeared from [Sodomsky’s] video list were innocuous. However, as the video log continued to compile on the computer screen, which occurred without any human intervention, some of the files appeared to be pornographic in nature due to their -titles which included masculine first names, ages -of either thirteen or fourteen, and sexual acts. Mr. Richert clicked on “the first one” that appeared questionable, and the video contained the lower torso of an unclothed male, and when a hand approached the male’s penis, Mr. Richert immediately stopped the video. Mr. Richert contacted his manager and then • telephoned the Wyomissing police.
During cross-examination, Mr. Ric-hert admitted that he had been told by a Pennsylvania State Police Officer to contact police if he ever ran across what appeared to be child pornography while at work. At the time, Mr. Richert was taking ,a course at a local college and hoped to enter the law enforcement field.
Wyomissing Police Detective George Bell and two other police officers responded to the call and viewed the same video clip. When [Sodomsky] arrived to retrieve his computer, Detective Bell informed him that his computer was being seized because police suspected that it contained child pornography. [Sodom-sky] responded that he knew what they had found and that his “life was over.” Police took the computer to the police station, obtained a warrant to search- it, and discovered child pornography.

Commonwealth v. Sodomsky, 939 A.2d 363, 364-366 (Pa.Super.2007).

Sodomsky was -'subsequently charged with two counts of sexual abuse of children (child pornography), and one count of obscene and other 'sexual materials and performances. 2

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Com. v. Hill, K.
2025 Pa. Super. 259 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2025)
Com. v. Shenk, T., Sr.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2023
Com. v. Rannels, C.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2021
Com. v. Hutchinson, R.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2021
Com. v. Keeno, S.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2020
Com. v. Scholl, M.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2019
Commonwealth v. Diaz
191 A.3d 850 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2018)
Com. v. Diaz, W.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2018

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
137 A.3d 620, 2016 Pa. Super. 84, 2016 WL 1436501, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 223, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-sodomsky-pasuperct-2016.