Murgerson v. Com., Pennsylvania Bd. of Probation and Parole
| Decision Date | 17 September 1990 |
| Citation | 579 A.2d 1335,135 Pa.Cmwlth. 10 |
| Parties | Jerome MURGERSON, Petitioner, v. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, PENNSYLVANIA BOARD OF PROBATION AND PAROLE, Respondent. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court |
John C. Armstrong, Office of the Public Defender of Montgomery County, for petitioner.
Robert Greevy, Chief Counsel, with him, Timothy P. Wile, Asst. Chief Counsel, for respondent.
Before CRAIG and DOYLE, JJ., and BARRY, Senior Judge.
Jerome Murgerson petitions this Court for review of an order of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (Board) which denied his requests for administrative relief from a parole revocation decision.
Murgerson was paroled by the Board on September 29, 1987 from a sentence of one to twenty years imposed by the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court as a result of his convictions for burglary, larceny, and receiving stolen goods. While at liberty on parole, Murgerson was arrested in Montgomery County and charged with multiple counts of forgery, theft and passing bad checks, but was released after posting bail. He failed to appear at the appointed time of his preliminary hearing and a bench warrant was issued which resulted in his re-arrest on May 4, 1988. Murgerson was unable to post the increased bail and was confined in the Montgomery County Prison. The Board lodged its warrant and detainer against him on May 20, 1988. Thereafter, on June 23, 1988, Murgerson was arrested and charged by Delaware County authorities with criminal conspiracy, receiving stolen property, forgery, and passing bad checks. In the interim, on May 25, 1989, he had requested that his parole violation and revocation hearings be continued until further written notice from him pending the disposition of the outstanding criminal charges.
Murgerson pled guilty in Montgomery County on October 7, 1988 to two counts of forgery and was sentenced to concurrent sentences of two to five years. He pled guilty in Delaware County on October 17, 1989 to one count of forgery and was sentenced to two to five years to run concurrently with the Montgomery County sentences.
A parole violation/revocation hearing was held on January 26, 1989 at the State Correctional Institution at Graterford. Murgerson was charged as a convicted parole violator (CPV) due to the Montgomery and Delaware County convictions, and as a technical parole violator (TPV) due to his alleged violation of general parole condition 3B (failure to contact parole supervision staff within seventy-two hours of arrest). On February 27, 1989, the Board recorded an order 1 which stated in pertinent part:
THE BOARD OF PROBATION AND PAROLE RENDERED THE FOLLOWING DECISION IN YOUR CASE:
Recommit to a state correctional institution as a technical and convicted parole violator to serve a total of 24 months on backtime.
6 months for violation of condition # 3B, failure to notify staff of arrest of 4-8-88 and 5-4-88.
24 months for the offenses of 3 cts. of forgery.
Violation time of 30 months to be served on: F9549 and recommit when available on: Y8157. Reparole 8-27-91 to Board detainer only.
....
Parole violation max date: 022799 (Emphasis added.)
Murgerson filed a request for administrative relief with the Board on April 7, 1989. However, on April 17, 1989, before it took any action on his request, the Board mailed Murgerson a "corrected order" which was identical in all respects to the March 24, 1989 order quoted supra except for the first paragraph which read in pertinent part:
Recommit to a state correctional institution as a technical and convicted parole violator to serve a total of 30 months on backtime. (Emphasis added.)
In response, Murgerson filed another request for administrative relief dated April 26, 1989. By letter dated June 1, 1989 and mailed June 13, 1989 the Board denied both the April 7 and April 26 requests for relief.
The only issue 2 presented for our review is whether the two orders recommitting Murgerson for twenty-four and thirty months respectively were vague and...
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