R. Williams v. PBPP

CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 24, 2020
Docket1149 C.D. 2019
StatusUnpublished

This text of R. Williams v. PBPP (R. Williams v. PBPP) 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
R. Williams v. PBPP, (Pa. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Rashad Williams, : Petitioner : : No. 1149 C.D. 2019 v. : : Submitted: January 17, 2020 Pennsylvania Board of : Probation and Parole, : Respondent :

BEFORE: HONORABLE P. KEVIN BROBSON, Judge HONORABLE PATRICIA A. McCULLOUGH, Judge HONORABLE ELLEN CEISLER, Judge

OPINION NOT REPORTED

MEMORANDUM OPINION BY JUDGE McCULLOUGH FILED: April 24, 2020

Rashad Williams (Williams) petitions for review1 of the July 18, 2019 order of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (Board),2 which denied Williams’s request for administrative relief from the Board’s June 23, 2017 order. The Board concluded that it held a timely revocation hearing, properly recalculated Williams’s maximum sentence date for his original offenses, and properly awarded Williams credit for time spent in custody.

1 Williams petitioned for review as a pro se litigant; however, by Order dated September 11, 2019, this Court appointed Williams counsel to represent him in this matter.

2 Subsequent to the filing of the petition for review, the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole has been renamed the Pennsylvania Parole Board. See Sections 15, 16, and 16.1 of the Act of December 18, 2019, P.L. 776, No. 115 (effective February 18, 2020); see also Sections 6101 and 6111(a) of the Prisons and Parole Code, as amended, 61 Pa. C.S. §§6101, 6111(a). Background Williams is an inmate presently confined in State Correctional Institution (SCI)-Fayette. (Certified Record (C.R.) at 173.) Williams was initially incarcerated due to his guilty plea, dated October 27, 2010, to Criminal Conspiracy and Drug – Manufacture/Sale/Deliver or Possession with Intent, which resulted in a sentence of three to six years; and his guilty plea to the same charges, involving a different incident, dated June 28, 2011, which resulted in a sentence of two to four years (original offenses). (C.R. at 1.) The original minimum sentence date was June 28, 2013, and the original maximum sentence date was March 12, 2016. (C.R. at 1-2.) By decision recorded April 5, 2013, the Board granted Williams parole on his original offenses. (C.R. at 4-8.) Williams was released on parole on July 18, 2013. (C.R. at 8.) While on parole, a criminal complaint was filed against Williams on May 16, 2015, by the Upper Darby Police Department in the Magisterial District Court 32-1-33 located in Delaware County. (C.R. at 12.) Williams was charged with the following offenses, (1) Rape by Forcible Compulsion, a first-degree felony; (2) Statutory Sexual Assault – 4-Years Older but Less than 8-Years old, a first-degree felony; (3) Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse with a Child, a first-degree felony; (4) Sexual Assault, a second-degree felony; (5) Aggravated Indecent Assault Without Consent, a second-degree felony; (6) Indecent Assault Without Consent, a second- degree misdemeanor; (7) Indecent Assault – Less than 16-Years of Age, a second- degree misdemeanor; (8) Indecent Exposure, a first-degree misdemeanor; (9) Corruption of Minors, a third-degree felony; (10) Sexual Abuse of Children (Photograph/Film/Depict on Computer Sex Act – Knowingly or Permitting a Child), a second-degree felony; (11) Sexual Abuse of Children (Possession of Child

2 Pornography), a third-degree felony; (12) Criminal Use of a Communication Facility, a third-degree felony; and (13) Incest, a second-degree felony. (C.R. at 13-17.) As a result of the Delaware County charges, on May 29, 2015, the Board issued a warrant to commit and detain Williams and he was thereafter taken into custody and placed in the Delaware County Prison. (C.R. at 20, 23.) On May 30, 2015, the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County set bail at $500,000.00, but Williams did not post bail. (C.R. at 33.) On June 17, 2015, the Board sent Williams notice of the charges against him with regard to his Delaware County case, notice of a detention hearing, and notice of his rights at Board hearings. (C.R. at 21-22.) That same day, Williams waived the right to a panel hearing, a detention hearing, and representation by counsel. (C.R. at 25, 26.) Thus, the Board issued a preliminary detention hearing report finding probable cause existed to detain Williams on the Delaware County charges and recommending that he be detained pending disposition of his criminal charges. (C.R. at 27-28.) By decision recorded July 23, 2015, the Board decided to detain Williams pending the disposition of the charges in his Delaware County case. (C.R. at 30.) On September 3, 2015, while in the custody of the Delaware County Prison, Williams was arrested by the Philadelphia Police Department for conduct that he committed in Philadelphia County while on parole. (C.R. at 94.) Williams was charged with (1) Corruption of Minors, a third-degree felony; (2) Unlawful Contact with a Minor – sexual offenses, a third-degree felony; and (3) Indecent Assault Person Less than 13 Years of Age, a third-degree felony. (C.R. at 88, 94.) The Board lodged a warrant to commit and detain Williams on September 4, 2015. (C.R.

3 at 31.) That same day, bail was set at $200,000.00 and Williams did not post bail. (C.R. at 88.) On December 28, 2015, with respect to the Delaware County charges, Williams pled guilty to (1) Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse with a Child, a first-degree felony; (2) Sexual Abuse of Children (Photograph/Film/Depict on Computer Sex Act – Knowingly or Permitting a Child), a second-degree felony; and (3) Incest, a second-degree felony. (C.R. at 35, 38.) Sentencing on the Delaware County case was deferred. (C.R. at 38.) On February 29, 2016, Williams waived his right to a revocation hearing, and a panel hearing, and the right to counsel and admitted that he pleaded guilty to the crimes identified above. (C.R. at 39.) The Board’s hearing report, dated February 29, 2016, reflects that the Board did not give Williams credit for time spent at liberty on parole, and decided to recommit him as a convicted parole violator (CPV) to serve his unexpired term. (C.R. at 42, 44.) By decision recorded April 14, 2016, the Board recommitted Williams to an SCI as a CPV, when available, to serve his unexpired term of 2 years, 7 months, and 22 days of backtime. (C.R. at 68-69.) On May 11, 2016, Williams was sentenced to 96 to 240 months of incarceration for his guilty plea in his Delaware County case. (C.R. at 70.) As of May 13, 2016, Williams was confined by the Department of Corrections at SCI-Graterford, but he was still being held on the arrest warrant for his Philadelphia County charges as he did not post bail that was set on September 4, 2015. (C.R. at 76.) Following trial in Williams’s Philadelphia County case, on March 8, 2017, Williams was found guilty of (1) Corruption of Minors, a third-degree felony; and (2) Indecent Assault of a Person Less than 13 Years of Age, a third-degree felony. (C.R. at 137-39.) On April 27, 2017, the Board issued another warrant to

4 commit and detain Williams. (C.R. at 99.) Sentencing was deferred following Williams’s conviction in his Philadelphia County case. (C.R. at 146.) On April 28, 2017, the Board executed a notice of charges and hearing notifying Williams of its intention to hold a hearing on May 9, 2017. (C.R. at 100.) By waiver executed May 9, 2017, Williams waived his right to counsel. (C.R. at 112.) A revocation hearing was held on May 9, 2017, at SCI-Fayette. (C.R. at 121.) There, Williams admitted that he was convicted in his Philadelphia County case. (C.R. at 126, Notes of Testimony (N.T.) at 6.) Williams testified that he was concerned that he had been confined without a revocation hearing being conducted within 120 days. (C.R. at 128, 131, N.T. 8, 11.) However, the hearing examiner pointed out that the date of Williams’s Philadelphia County conviction was March 8, 2017, and the hearing was held approximately two months later on May 9, 2017. (C.R. at 131, N.T.

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R. Williams v. PBPP, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/r-williams-v-pbpp-pacommwct-2020.