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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
: PENNSYLVANIA
:
v. :
:
:
CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL MACEDO :
:
: No. 695 MDA 2023
APPEAL OF: PENNSYLVANIA STATE :
POLICE :
Appeal from the Order Entered April 13, 2023
In the Court of Common Pleas of Cumberland County Criminal Division at
No(s): CP-21-CR-0002432-2009
BEFORE: OLSON, J., NICHOLS, J., and BECK, J.
MEMORANDUM BY OLSON, J.: FILED: MARCH 20, 2024
Appellant, the Pennsylvania State Police (“PSP”), appeals from the April
13, 2023 order granting Appellee Christopher Michael Macedo’s petition asking
the trial court to vacate his registration requirements under Subchapter I of
the Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”), 42 Pa.C.S.A.
§ 9799.51-9799.75.1 After careful consideration, we transfer this appeal to
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
A previous panel of this Court summarized the facts of this case as
follows:
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1 Among other things, SORNA’s Subchapter I provides that an offender who
committed an enumerated offense between April 22, 1996 and December 20,
2012 must comply with certain registration, notification, and counseling
(“RNC”) requirements. See 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9799.52.
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[Appellee] serially molested his younger siblings and
step-siblings between February 2000 and February 2006. He
was [11-years-old] when the first offense occurred. He was a
few days shy of his 17[th] birthday when the last offense took
place. The offenses occurred when [Appellee] was placed in the
position of having to babysit the victims. The abuse stopped
when he was no longer forced to care for the children.
***
The instant offenses were not brought to light until July [] 2009,
when [Appellee] was more than 20 years old. At that time[,] it
was no longer feasible to treat him as a juvenile.
***
On May 21, 2010, [Appellee] entered a plea of nolo contendere
to [10] counts of rape, seven counts of involuntary deviate
sexual intercourse [(“IDSI”] with a child, six counts of
aggravated indecent assault, [10] counts of incest and [27]
counts of indecent assault. The Commonwealth gave notice
that it was seeking the mandatory minimum sentence on
[Appellee’s] rape, [IDSI,] and aggravated indecent assault
charges.
[Appellee] was referred to the Sexual Offender Assessment
Board for an evaluation. Thereafter[,] the Commonwealth filed
a petition to have him declared to be a sexually violent predator
[(“SVP”)]. [The trial court] held an evidentiary hearing on the
petition on September 7, 2010. On October 5, 2010, [the trial
court] entered an order designating [Appellee] as an [SVP]. On
that same date[, the court] sentenced him to imprisonment for
not less than five nor more than [10] years plus an additional
[20] years[’] probation. [This sentence included multiple
five-year mandatory minimum sentences, all of which Appellee
was to serve concurrently. Appellee was also subjected to
lifetime sexual offender registration requirements.]
Commonwealth v. Macedo, 43 A.3d 528 (Pa. Super. 2012) (unpublished
memorandum) (Table at 1-2).
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On July 20, 2022, Appellee filed a petition seeking to vacate his sexual
offender registration requirements.2 In his petition, Appellee argued that,
because he was a juvenile at the time he committed the offenses, his
continuing registration requirements under Subchapter I of SORNA
constituted cruel and unusual punishment and violated his due process rights
under the Fifth and 14th Amendments of the United States’ Constitution, as
well as Article I, Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. In making this
assertion, Appellee relied upon our Supreme Court’s decision in In the
Interest of J.B., 107 A.3d 1 (Pa. 2014) (“J.B.”) and this Court’s decision in
Commonwealth v. Haines, 222 A.3d 756 (Pa. Super. 2019). J.B. held that
SORNA's lifetime registration provision violated a juvenile offender’s due
process rights by utilizing the irrebuttable presumption that was not
universally true.3 Haines extended J.B. to juvenile offenders who were
____________________________________________
2 Prior to filing the instant petition, Appellant challenged his judgment of
sentence in a direct appeal before this Court. We affirmed Appellant’s
judgment of sentence in 2012. Thereafter, our Supreme Court denied
allocatur on February 21, 2013. As such, Appellee’s judgment of sentence
became final on May 22, 2013, when the 90-day period to file a petition for
writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court expired. See 42
Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b)(3); U.S.Sup.Ct. Rule 13, The trial court, however, was
permitted to exercise jurisdiction over Appellee’s July 20, 2022 petition
pursuant to our Supreme Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Lacombe,
234 A.3d 602, 617-618 (Pa. 2020) which explicitly stated that a challenge to
the application of a sexual offender registration requirement need not be
raised under the Post-Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”).
3 We note that, in J.B., the Supreme Court considered the original version of
SORNA (42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9799.10-9799.41), which became effective in
December 2012. SORNA was amended thereafter, but the amendments are
not germane to the issues discussed herein.
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convicted and sentenced after reaching majority. On August 2, 2022,
Appellant entered its appearance and filed an answer to Appellee’s petition.
Thereafter, the trial court entered an order stating that, because the
offenses in this case occurred when Appellee was a juvenile, the “registration
requirements of SORNA imposed as a result of the underlying offenses . . .
must be vacated” pursuant to J.B. and Haines. Trial Court Order, 9/19/22,
at 1. The court, however, noted that Appellee was “still required to undergo
lifetime registration under SORNA because of the prior finding that he [met
the criteria for SVP designation].” Id. The court then stated that it had “some
concerns about the validity of [its] original finding that [Appellee was] a[n
SVP]” and requested further briefing to address “whether or not [Appellee’s]
status as a[n SVP] may be revisited.” Id. Appellee, therefore, filed a
subsequent brief in which he argued that, in light of his juvenile status at the
time of the offenses, the application of Subchapter I’s irrebuttable
presumption of future dangerousness within the context of his SVP
determination was unconstitutional. See Appellee’s Second Brief in Support
of Petition to Vacate, 10/13/22, at *3-*7 (unpaginated).
Ultimately, on April 13, 2023, the trial court granted Appellee’s petition,
holding as follows:
[This court] is satisfied that [Appellee] has demonstrated that
1) SORNA encroaches upon his constitutionally protected and
fundamental right to reputation with an irrebuttable
presumption that all sexual offenders pose a high risk of
committing additional sexual offenses; 2) SORNA’s presumption
is not universally true as evidenced by the fact[] that [Appellee]
himself stopped the problematic conduct while he was yet a
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juvenile, has since maintained employment and started a
family, has remained crime free, and has been found to be a
low risk of recidivism of sexual offenses by an expert; and
3) alternative means, including periodic individual
reassessment, exist to determine (the presumed fact of)
whether a sex offender who committed his offense as a juvenile
against another juvenile poses a continued, high risk of
recidivating. See [J.B., supra; Haines, supra]. [Appellee]
has shown that he will forever be negatively affected by the
presumption imposed by SORNA and his SVP designation.
Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED and DECREED that
[Appellee] is relieved from his court-ordered registration
requirements under SORNA. It is further ORDERED that the
[PSP] is enjoined from requiring [Appellee] to register under
SORNA or publishing him as a registered offender under
SORNA.
Trial Court Order, 4/13/23, at 1-3 (footnotes omitted). This timely appeal
followed.4
____________________________________________
4 On June 14, 2023, the trial court ordered Appellant to file a concise
statement of matters complained of on appeal pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b).
No such statement appears in the record or on the docket. In general, the
failure to file a Rule 1925(b) statement would result in the waiver of an
appellant’s issues on appeal. See Greater Erie Indus. Dev. Corp. v.
Presque Isle Downs, Inc., 88 A.3d 222, 224-225 (Pa. Super. 2014) (en
banc); see also Commonwealth v. Castillo, 888 A.2d 775, 780 (Pa. 2005)
(explaining that an untimely concise statement waives all claims on appeal);
Commonwealth v. Lord, 719 A.2d 306, 309 (Pa. 1998) (“[F]rom this date
forward . . . [a]ppellants must comply whenever the trial court orders them
to file a [s]tatement of [errors] [c]omplained of on [a]ppeal pursuant to Rule
1925. Any issues not raised in a 1925(b) statement will be deemed waived.”).
The trial court’s docket does not reflect that the court’s order was served on
Appellant, as required by Pa.R.Crim.P. 114(C)(2)(c). It simply notes that the
order was served upon the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office and
Appellee’s counsel. We are, therefore, unable to determine the date Appellant
was served with the trial court’s Rule 1925(b) order, as required by Rule 114,
and similarly cannot conclude that Appellant failed to comply with the trial
court’s 1925(b) order. See Commonwealth v. Chester, 163 A.3d 470, 472
(Pa. Super. 2017) (finding that because the docket did not reflect whether
(Footnote Continued Next Page)
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Appellant raises the following issues on appeal:
1. Does Appellant have standing?
2. Did the trial court err as a matter of law or abuse its
discretion in finding that Appellee’s designation as a[n SVP]
was based on an irrebuttable presumption?
3. Did the trial court err as a matter of law in extending [J.B.,
supra; Haines, supra] to Appellee who, as an adult, was
classified [as] a[n SVP]?
4. Did the trial court err as a matter of law or abuse its
discretion in determining that Appellee’s [SVP] designation
violated his right to reputation under Article [I], Section 1 of
the Pennsylvania Constitution?
5. Did the trial court err as a matter of law or abuse its
discretion in finding that Subchapter I as applied to Appellee
is unconstitutional?
Appellant’s Brief at 5.
Before we address the merits of Appellant’s claims, we must first
determine whether we have jurisdiction to do so. Importantly, our Supreme
Court has exclusive jurisdiction over the following types of cases:
§ 722. Direct appeals from courts of common pleas
The Supreme Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction of appeals
from final orders of the courts of common pleas in the following
classes of cases:
***
(7) Matters where the court of common pleas has held
invalid as repugnant to the Constitution, treaties or laws of
____________________________________________
service of the court’s 1925(b) order was effectuated, it could not conclude that
the appellant failed to comply with the order). Accordingly, we decline to find
that Appellant waived its claim on this basis. Moreover, in the interest of
judicial economy, we decline to remand this matter to determine whether the
trial court’s 1925(b) order was properly served. See id. at 472, n.2.
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the United States, or to the Constitution of this
Commonwealth, any treaty or law of the United States or
any provision of the Constitution of, or of any statute of,
this Commonwealth, or any provision of any home rule
charter.
42 Pa.C.S.A. § 722(7).
In addition, Rule 751 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure
provides:
Rule 751. Transfer of Erroneously Filed Cases
(a) General rule. If an appeal or other matter is taken to or
brought in a court or magisterial district which does not have
jurisdiction of the appeal or other matter, the court or
magisterial district judge shall not quash such appeal or dismiss
the matter, but shall transfer the record thereof to the proper
court of this Commonwealth, where the appeal or other matter
shall be treated as if originally filed in transferee court on the
date first filed in a court or magisterial district.
(b) Transfers by prothonotaries. An appeal or other matter
may be transferred from a court to another court under this rule
by order of court or by order of the prothonotary of any
appellate court affected.
Pa.R.A.P. 751; see also 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5103(a) (“A matter which is within
the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or magisterial district judge of this
Commonwealth but which is commenced in any other tribunal of this
Commonwealth shall be transferred by the other tribunal to the proper court
or magisterial district of this Commonwealth where it shall be treated as if
originally filed in the transferee court or magisterial district of this
Commonwealth on the date when first filed in the other tribunal.”);
Commonwealth v. Herman, 143 A.3d 392, 394 (Pa. Super. 2016) (“Where
an appeal within the exclusive jurisdiction of a tribunal is mistakenly filed in
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the wrong court, the proper course is to transfer the appeal to the correct
judicial body.”).
The trial court herein held that the lifetime registration requirements
which followed Appellee’s SVP determination rested upon an irrebuttable
presumption that “all sexual offenders pose a high risk of committing
additional sexual offenses.” Trial Court Order, 4/13/23, at 2. The trial court
then determined that the application of the irrebuttable presumption violated
Appellee’s protected reputational interest, especially considering his juvenile
status at the time of the offenses. Id. at 1-3. Our case law uniformly holds
that an appeal from an order invalidating SORNA’s registration requirements
based on an irrebuttable presumption lies within the exclusive jurisdiction of
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court pursuant to Section 722(7).5 See
____________________________________________
5 In a recent decision, a panel of this Court addressed an appellant’s challenge
to a trial court’s order directing her to register as a sexual offender under
Revised Subchapter H of SORNA, 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9799.10-9799.42. See
Commonwealth v. Muhammad, 241 A.3d 1149 (Pa. Super. 2020). In so
doing, we held that “SORNA [was] unconstitutional as applied to [the
a]ppellant because it creat[ed] an irrebuttable presumption that her
convictions . . . ma[d]e her a risk to commit additional sexual offenses.” Id.
at 1151-1152. Upon review, we conclude that this matter is wholly distinct
from that of Muhammad and fully within the jurisdiction of our Supreme
Court. Indeed, unlike Appellee herein, the appellant in Muhammad was not
convicted for crimes that are sexual in nature or are typical of those charges
that give rise to SORNA’s registration requirements. Rather, her convictions,
which included interference with custody of children, false imprisonment,
unlawful restraint and conspiracy to commit the aforementioned offenses,
arose from a single episode involving a custody dispute. Hence, the
appellant’s challenge in Muhammad was clearly an “as-applied challenge
limited to the particular circumstances of [her] case.” Id. at 1157. In this
instance, like that of Torsilieri, Arnett, and Gruver, the trial court
(Footnote Continued Next Page)
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Commonwealth v. Torsilieri, 232 A.3d 567, 572 (Pa. 2020) (appeal from
trial court order declaring that RNC provisions of SORNA’s Revised Subchapter
H utilized an irrebuttable presumption which violated the appellant’s right of
reputation fell within exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court); see also
Commonwealth v. Arnett, 2023 WL 2232705 *1 (Pa. Super. Feb. 27, 2023)
(non-precedential decision) (challenge to order declaring that SORNA
Subchapter I utilized an irrebuttable presumption which violated the
appellant’s right of reputation fell within exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme
Court); Commonwealth v. Gruver, 2021 WL 37475 *1 (Pa. Super. Jan. 5,
2021) (non-precedential decision) (appeal from order finding that SORNA
Subchapter H’s RNC requirements utilized an irrebuttable presumption which
violated the appellee’s constitutional right of reputation fell within exclusive
jurisdiction of Supreme Court).6 We therefore transfer this appeal to the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.7
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terminated Appellee’s registration obligations because it determined that
SORNA Subchapter I utilized an irrebuttable presumption which
unconstitutionally intruded upon Appellant’s fundamental right of reputation.
We further note that the trial court applied its determination to invalidate
Appellee’s registration requirements despite his status as an SVP, which is a
question that has not yet been addressed by a Pennsylvania appellate court.
6 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court accepted the Gruver appeal and affirmed
the trial court in a per curiam order on other grounds. See Commonwealth
v. Gruver, 252 A.3d 642 (Pa. 2022) (per curiam).
7 In transferring the instant appeal, we express no opinion on whether
Appellant has standing to contest the trial court’s April 13, 2023 order. See
Commonwealth v. Cheeseboro, 91 A.3d 714, 720-722 (Pa. Super. 2014).
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Appeal transferred. Jurisdiction relinquished.
Judgment Entered.
Benjamin D. Kohler, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 3/20/2024
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