Com. v. Kearse

• Decision Date: 13 December 2005
• Citation: 890 A.2d 388
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Haroon KEARSE, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 388

890 A.2d 388

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Haroon KEARSE, Appellant.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued September 27, 2005.

Filed December 13, 2005.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Jeffrey P. Shender, Public Defender, Philadelphia, for appellant.

Peter Carr, Assistant District Attorney, Philadelphia, for Commonwealth, appellee.

Before: JOYCE, LALLY-GREEN and JOHNSON.

OPINION BY JOYCE, J.:

¶ 1 Haroon Kearse (Appellant) appeals the judgment of sentence entered September 23, 2004, in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County. In this appeal, Appellant alleges the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss based on Pa.R.Crim.P. 600, 42 Pa.C.S.A. (Rule 600) in violation of his right to a speedy trial. Upon review, we affirm. The relevant facts and procedural history are as follows.

¶ 2 During a surveillance operation, Appellant and his co-defendant, Tyree Bonner, were observed selling drugs to a variety of different people. As a result, Appellant was arrested on May 8, 2003, and charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, and criminal conspiracy.¹ The criminal complaint was issued on May 9, 2003; therefore, the Commonwealth was required to bring Appellant to trial by the mechanical run date of May 8, 2004, since 2004 was a leap year.

¶ 3 The case was originally listed for the Treatment Court upon Appellant's request.² On May 27, 2003, it was determined that Appellant was not appropriate for Treatment Court; thus, the case was listed for a preliminary hearing on June 3, 2003. However, on that date, Appellant's co-defendant's counsel did not appear, the Commonwealth opted not to sever the charges, and the case was continued until July 1, 2003. Co-defendant's counsel's failure to appear plagued the next four scheduled preliminary hearings, requiring continuances. Additionally, on the fifth scheduled preliminary hearing date, the affiant was unavailable to testify since he was attending a funeral, requiring another continuance until April 6, 2004, when the charges were bound over to court. Appellant was arraigned on April 27, 2004, and trial was scheduled for June 17, 2004. This date was beyond the mechanical run date which prompted Appellant to file a motion to dismiss. A hearing was held, the motion was denied, and Appellant proceeded to a non-jury trial and was convicted of the aforementioned charges. On September 23, 2004, he was sentenced to an aggregate of five years of probation. This timely appeal followed wherein Appellant raises a sole challenge to the trial court's denial of his motion to dismiss. Appellant's issue essentially boils down to a single question: did the Commonwealth fail to act with due diligence when it allowed the preliminary hearing to be continued several times instead of severing Appellant's case from his co-defendant's, thus protecting Appellant's speedy trial rights?

¶ 4 Our standard of review relating to the application of Rule 600 is whether the trial court abused its discretion. Commonwealth v. Hunt, 858 A.2d 1234, 1238 (Pa.Super.2004) (en banc). "Our scope of review is limited to the evidence on the record of the Rule 600 evidentiary hearing and the findings of the trial court. We must view the facts in the light most favorable to the prevailing party." Commonwealth v. Williams, 876 A.2d 1018, 1020 (Pa.Super.2005) (citation omitted).

Additionally, when considering the trial court's ruling, this Court is not permitted to ignore the dual purpose behind Rule [600]. Rule [600] serves two equally important functions: (1) the protection of the accused's speedy trial rights, and (2) the protection of society. In determining whether an accused's right to a speedy trial has been violated, consideration must be given to society's right to effective prosecution of criminal cases, both to restrain those guilty of crime and to deter those contemplating it. However, the administrative mandate of Rule [600] was not designed to insulate the criminally accused from good faith prosecution delayed through no fault of the Commonwealth.

Hunt, supra, 858 A.2d at 1239.

¶ 5 Appellant's speedy trial right is governed by Pa.R.Crim.P. 600, 42 Pa.C.S.A., which provides, in relevant part:

(A)(3) Trial in a court case in which a written complaint is filed against the defendant, when the defendant is at liberty on bail, shall commence no later than 365 days from the date on which the complaint is filed.

(B) For the purpose of this rule, trial shall be deemed to commence on the date the trial judge calls the case to trial, or the defendant tenders a plea of guilty or nolo contendere.

(C) In determining the period for commencement of trial, there shall be excluded therefrom:

(3) such period of delay at any stage of the proceedings as results from:

(a) the unavailability of the defendant or the defendant's attorney;

(b) any continuance granted at the request of the defendant or the defendant's attorney.

.....

(G) For defendants on bail after the expiration of 365 days, at any time before trial, the defendant or the defendant's attorney may apply to the court for an order dismissing the charges with prejudice on the ground that this rule has been violated. A copy of such motion shall be served upon the attorney for the Commonwealth, who shall also have the right to be heard thereon.

If the court, upon hearing, shall determine that the Commonwealth exercised due diligence and that the circumstances occasioning the postponement were beyond the control of the Commonwealth, the motion to dismiss shall be denied and the case shall be listed for trial on a date certain. If, on any successive listing of the case, the Commonwealth is not prepared to proceed to trial on the date fixed, the court shall determine whether the Commonwealth exercised due diligence in attempting to be prepared to proceed to trial. If, at any time, it is determined that the Commonwealth did not exercise due diligence, the court shall dismiss the charges and discharge the defendant.

In the event the case is dismissed pursuant to this paragraph, the court shall promptly prepare a report of continuances by the Commonwealth, and the reasons therefor, which prevented the case from coming to trial as required by this rule. Such report shall be certified by the president judge or administrative judge, shall be made part of the public record of the case, and shall be sent to the Court Administrator of Pennsylvania within 20 days of the order of discharge.

Pa.R.Crim.P. 600. Since the complaint against Appellant was filed on May 9, 2003, his mechanical run date was May 8, 2004, since 2004 was a leap year. However, Appellant's case was not listed for trial until June 17, 2004, forty days after the mechanical run date. Of those forty days, the court determined that the seven days where Appellant requested that he be accepted into Treatment Court were excludable time. Thus, Appellant's adjusted run date was May 15, 2003. Appellant's case was not called until June 17, 2004, thirty-three days after his adjusted run date in violation of Rule 600. "Once a violation of Rule 600 has been established, as it has here, the inquiry becomes whether the Commonwealth exercised due diligence in bringing Appellant to trial and if the circumstances occasioning the postponement were beyond the control of the Commonwealth." Commonwealth v. Hill, 558 Pa. 238, 736 A.2d 578, 591 (1999); Pa. R.Crim.P. 600(G).

¶ 6 Before discussing the propriety of the trial court's denial of Appellant's Rule 600 motion, we must first address the Commonwealth's position that it was only required to prove that it acted with due diligence at the last listing before the run date. Both in its brief and at oral argument, the Commonwealth maintained that this Court may only consider that it acted diligently between the last listing before the run date, the April 27, 2004 arraignment, and the June 17, 2004 first scheduled trial date. The Commonwealth's position would thus prevent this Court from considering Appellant's position that it did not act with due diligence in continuing Appellant' preliminary hearing six times because all of those dates preceded the last listing before Appellant was scheduled for trial. We are taking this opportunity to dispel the Commonwealth's erroneous notion.

¶ 7 The Commonwealth advances its position based on a sentence extracted from Commonwealth v. Mines, 797 A.2d 963 (Pa.Super.2002), which, in turn, quoted Commonwealth v. Burke, 344 Pa.Super. 288, 496 A.2d 799 (1985). In Mines, the defendant filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 600, which was denied. The reason for the delay in bringing the defendant to trial was the fact that "on the last two listings before the mechanical run date, Mines was not brought down [to the court] from state custody." Mines, 797 A.2d at 964. Mines argued that the delay should be attributable to the Commonwealth, a position rejected by the Court. In so finding, the Mines Court stated "the Commonwealth must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that it acted with due diligence at the last listing before the amended rundate and any listing thereafter to bring the case to trial" and that the evidence established this due diligence. Id. at 965, quoting Burke, supra (emphasis added). Indeed, the Commonwealth's efforts to bring Mines to trial on the last two listings before the run date were the only periods of time at issue, thus making the citation to Burke relevant under the facts of that case only. However the Commonwealth's efforts to extend that proposition to the case sub judice are misguided.

¶ 8 The quotation at issue in Mines originated from Burke, supra, wherein the issue was whether the trial court erred in granting the Commonwealth an extension of time in which to try the defendant. At the time Burke was decided, Rule 1100(c) (the precursor of Rule 600) provided:

At any time prior to the expiration...