J-S34028-17
NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
Appellant
v.
MAURICE QUINN
Appellee No. 1540 EDA 2016
Appeal from the Order Dated April 15, 2016
In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-51-CR-0008586-2014
BEFORE: BOWES, J., SOLANO, J., and PLATT, J.*
JUDGMENT ORDER BY SOLANO, J.: FILED SEPTEMBER 26, 2017
The Commonwealth appeals from the trial court’s order dismissing
charges for violations of the Uniform Firearms Act, receiving stolen property,
recklessly endangering another person, and fleeing or attempting to allude a
police officer1 faced by Appellee, Maurice Quinn. We reverse.
On June 26, 2014, Appellee was arrested for the above offenses
following a traffic stop during which he was also issued traffic citations for
the summary offenses of reckless driving and failure to yield at a red traffic-
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*
Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.
1
Appellee was charged with violating 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 6105(a)(1), 6106.1(a),
6106(a)(1), 6110.2(a), 6117(a), 6108, 3925(a), and 2705, and 75 Pa.C.S.
§ 3733(a).
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control signal.2 Appellee was tried in absentia on January 11, 2016, and was
found guilty of the summary offenses in the Traffic Division of Philadelphia
Municipal Court. On March 11, 2016, Appellee filed a pre-trial motion to
dismiss the remaining charges, for which Appellee was facing trial in the
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. Appellee’s motion was based on
the compulsory joinder rule, which prevents a defendant from being tried in
multiple proceedings for conduct arising from the same criminal episode and
which “occurred within the same judicial district as the former prosecution.”
18 Pa.C.S. § 110(1)(ii).3
On April 15, 2016, following a hearing, the trial court granted
Appellee’s motion. The Commonwealth timely appealed, raising the following
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2
75 Pa.C.S. §§ 3736(a), 3112(a)(3)(ii).
3
18 Pa.C.S. § 110 provides, in relevant part:
Although a prosecution is for a violation of a different provision
of the statutes than a former prosecution or is based on different
facts, it is barred by such former prosecution under the following
circumstances:
(1) The former prosecution resulted in an acquittal or in a
conviction . . . and the subsequent prosecution is for:
...
(ii) any offense based on the same conduct or arising from
the same criminal episode, if such offense was known to the
appropriate prosecuting officer at the time of the
commencement of the first trial and occurred within the same
judicial district as the former prosecution unless the court
ordered a separate trial of the charge of such offense[.]
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question: “Did the court err when . . . it dismissed misdemeanor and felony
charges with prejudice pursuant to 18 Pa.C.S. § 110 based on the prior
adjudication of summary traffic offenses?” Commonwealth’s Brief at 6.
On August 30, 2017, this Court decided Commonwealth v. Perfetto,
___ A.3d ___, 2017 PA Super 281 (Pa. Super. Aug. 30, 2017) (en banc). In
Perfetto, as in the instant case, the defendant was arrested in Philadelphia
and charged with a summary traffic violation as well as more serious
criminal offenses. The defendant was found guilty in absentia in the
Philadelphia Municipal Court Traffic Division of the summary traffic offense
and filed a motion to dismiss the remaining charges based on Section 110.
The trial court granted the motion, but this Court reversed. We held that
“the jurisdiction of a court remains a consideration implicit to any
compulsory joinder analysis,” and in Philadelphia, the Traffic Division of the
Municipal Court4 has exclusive jurisdiction over summary traffic violations.
We therefore held that “[a] prior disposition of a summary traffic offense in a
traffic court does not bar the later prosecution of other criminal charges
which arise in the same judicial district and at the same time as the
summary traffic offense.” Perfetto, 2017 PA Super 281 at *20.
Given the foregoing, we reverse and remand.
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4
In 2013, the Philadelphia Municipal Court was restructured to include a
General Division and a Traffic Division, the latter of which subsumed the
former Traffic Court of Philadelphia. Perfetto, 2017 PA Super 281 at *15.
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J-S34028-17
Order reversed. Case remanded. Jurisdiction relinquished.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 9/26/2017
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