D. Wagoner, III v. PPB

CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 2, 2026
Docket494 C.D. 2025
StatusUnpublished
AuthorMcCullough

This text of D. Wagoner, III v. PPB (D. Wagoner, III v. PPB) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
D. Wagoner, III v. PPB, (Pa. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Denzil Wagoner, III, : Petitioner : : v. : No. 494 C.D. 2025 : Pennsylvania Parole Board, : Submitted: May 18, 2026 Respondent :

BEFORE: HONORABLE PATRICIA A. McCULLOUGH, Judge HONORABLE MATTHEW S. WOLF, Judge HONORABLE MARY HANNAH LEAVITT, Senior Judge

OPINION NOT REPORTED

MEMORANDUM OPINION BY JUDGE McCULLOUGH FILED: June 2, 2026

Denzil Wagoner, III (Petitioner), by counsel, petitions this Court for review of the Pennsylvania Parole Board’s (Board) decision mailed on February 11, 2025. Therein, the Board denied Petitioner’s request for administrative relief from the Board’s prior decision, mailed on September 26, 2024, which recommitted him as a convicted parole violator (CPV) to serve 12 months’ backtime,1 recalculated his maximum sentence date, and denied him credit for time spent at liberty on parole.2 Petitioner contends that the Board erred in recalculating his maximum sentence date after his conviction as a parole violator. He also argues this Court has jurisdiction over his appeal because his Petition for Review was timely filed under the prisoner mailbox rule. On June 13, 2025, the Board filed an Application for Summary Relief and Motion

1 “Backtime” is the portion of a judicially-imposed sentence that a parole violator must serve as a consequence of violating parole before he is eligible for reparole. Krantz v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation & Parole, 483 A.2d 1044, 1047 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1984).

2 The time a parolee spends at liberty on parole is also referred to as “street time.” Dorsey v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation & Parole, 854 A.2d 994, 996 n.3 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2004). to Quash the Petition as untimely. Upon review, we grant the Board’s Motion and quash the appeal for lack of jurisdiction due to untimeliness. I. Facts and Procedural History On November 29, 2021, Petitioner entered a guilty plea in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas (trial court) to one count of Fleeing or Attempting to Elude Police Officer and was sentenced to a period of not less than one year and nine months’, nor more than three years and six months’ confinement at a State Correctional Institution (SCI). Petitioner’s minimum and maximum sentence dates were January 21, 2023, and October 21, 2024, respectively. (Certified Record (C.R.) at 1.) On October 13, 2022, the Board issued a decision granting Petitioner parole. On January 23, 2023, the Board released him from SCI-Coal Township to a Delaware State detainer. Id. at 4, 7, 8, 12, 30. As a condition of his parole, he was instructed that upon release from the Delaware State detainer, or if released by the authorities prior to his Pennsylvania maximum date of October 21, 2024, he was to report within 48 hours to the Norristown Sub Office in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Id. at 8, 12. On August 8, 2023, the Board declared Petitioner delinquent, effective July 28, 2023. Id. at 14. On September 24, 2023, while on parole, the Upper Chichester Police arrested Petitioner and charged him with Aggravated Assault, Harassment, Flight to Avoid Apprehension, Simple Assault, Terroristic Threats, Stalking, Recklessly Endangering Another Person, and Possession of a Weapon. The Magisterial District Court Judge set secure bail and Petitioner was detained at the George Hill Correctional Facility. Petitioner did not post bail. Id. at 15, 16, 27, 53. On the same day, the Department of Corrections (DOC) issued a warrant to commit and detain Petitioner. Id. at 15. On October 5, 2023, the Board ordered him detained pending disposition of the criminal charges. Id. at 14-19. The Board also recommitted Petitioner as a technical parole violator (TPV) for up to six months for multiple parole violations, which included changing his residence without permission and failing to report to his

2 parole officer as instructed. His new maximum sentence date was recalculated to be December 18, 2024, but was subject to change in the event he was convicted of the pending criminal charges against him. Id. at 16-18. Petitioner pled guilty to the new charges of making Terroristic Threats and Harassment, and on July 15, 2024, the trial court sentenced Petitioner to a period of 6 to 23 months’ county incarceration and 1 year of probation to run concurrently. Id. at 36, 37, 65, 86. On August 12, 2024, the Board provided Petitioner with a Notice of Charges and Parole Revocation Hearing, which he signed. Id. at 22. On the same day, Petitioner waived his right to a hearing and counsel for his parole violation proceedings. Id. at 24. On September 23, 2024, the Board contacted the sentencing judge to inquire as to when Petitioner would be released from county confinement so the Board could pursue parole revocation hearings. It stated: Please advise, if your intent is to parole this offender and make him available to the [] Board, we require an order stating as such. If the offender has not completed the aforementioned sentence, he/she must be returned to the county prison to complete this sentence.

If we do not receive such an order within 10 business days or notification that the offender has not completed the sentence, we will presume the offender paroled effective the date he/she was returned to an SCI.

Id. at 65. On the same day, the Board received an email stating that Petitioner had completed his county sentence and was now in SCI-Smithfield. Id. at 67. Petitioner had been returned to SCI-Smithfield on September 11, 2024. Id. at 68. On September 26, 2024, the Board issued a decision, (mailed on October 8, 2024), recommitting Petitioner as a CPV to a term of 12 months based on his new criminal convictions and recalculated his maximum sentence date as June 10, 2026. The Board did not award Petitioner credit for time spent at liberty on parole because it determined “the offender’s behavior reflects domestic violence issues that warrant denying credit for time spent at liberty on parole.” Id. at 69, 71, 72. 3 On October 31, 2024, the Board received Petitioner’s pro se administrative remedies form appealing the calculation of his maximum sentence date. Id. at 73. On February 11, 2025, the Board mailed its response to Petitioner’s request for administrative relief, which affirmed its September 26, 2024 decision. Id. at 85-87. The Board’s response stated, “[i]f you wish to appeal this decision, you must file an appellate petition for review with the Commonwealth Court within thirty (30) days of the mailing date of the Board’s response.” Id. at 87. In April of 2025, this Court received and docketed Petitioner’s pro se Petition for Review.3 On June 5, 2025, Petitioner, through appointed counsel, filed an Amended Petition for Review. On June 13, 2025, this Court issued an order indicating that the Petition for Review may be untimely and directing the parties to address the issue of timeliness in their principal briefs on the merits or in an appropriate motion. On the same day, the Board filed an Application for Summary Relief and Motion to Quash Untimely Appeal. On June 18, 2025, Petitioner filed an Answer and Statement of Disputed Facts in response to the Board’s Application for Summary Relief. The Board then filed a Reply to Petitioner’s Answer to Board’s Application for Special Relief. The parties’ principal briefs have now been filed and the case is before this Court for decision.

II. Issues Petitioner first contends that under the prisoner mailbox rule, his Petition for Review was timely, even though the envelope in which the appeal was mailed was postmarked on April 14, 2025, and the appeal was received and docketed by the Commonwealth Court on the same date. Petitioner asserts that the Petition for Review

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D. Wagoner, III v. PPB, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/d-wagoner-iii-v-ppb-pacommwct-2026.