A split session at 15-1-01 marked yesterday's criminal day. Of the 13 cases listed on the docket, only one went to a preliminary hearing, and that was during the later session starting at 10:30. Two cases were waived up to Common Pleas Court, one case was withdrawn in lieu of a summary charge, and the remaining four cases from the early session were continued to later dates. Among those cases continued was Commonwealth vs. Raymond Cunningham (15-1-01, CR-0000156-07). Cunningham, who was arrested last week in the drug raid on the 200 block of North New Street, had his hearing continued until June 26. He is now free on $50,000 bail.
One of the waivers involved Bradley Russo, who had faced drug possession charges (15-1-01, CR-0000073-07) when he was arrested last month for DUI on the 50 block of East Miner Street. He waived his preliminary hearing in order to apply for Drug Court. His preliminary hearing on the DUI charges is scheduled in front of Judge Knapp on July 13. (15-1-04, CR-0000178-07)
The second session started off with a hearing in the matter of Commonwealth vs. Luke Noble Hanson (15-1-01, CR-0000120-07). Hanson, 20, of Harleysville, Montgomery County, faced charges of Defiant Tresspass and Disorderly Conduct following an incident on the WCU campus. On April 12, Sgt. Matthew Paris of the WCU Police was working a security detail during a concert at Hollinger Gym. Sgt. Paris testified that he observed the defendant and recognized him from prior contacts, including a drug possession arrest last year. In that case, Hanson pled guilty to Possession of Drug Paraphanalia and Possession of a Controlled Substance and was sentenced to 5 days to 1 year in Chester County Prison and 1 year consecutive probation on October 16, 2006. (CP-15-CR-0000220-2006)
Sgt. Paris then directed the defendant to step over towards him and advised the defendant that he was banned from campus. Sgt. Paris then testified that Hanson had said that he "served his time" and was permitted back on campus, though was not able to provide written proof to that effect. Hanson allegedly made vulgar remarks directed at the officer and police officers in general. At that point, Sgt. Paris ordered the defendant to leave the property on several occasions. He had then waited a few minutes to allow the defendant to leave the area. Hanson continued to direct vulgar comments at Sgt. Paris who at that point was attempting to avoid effecting an arrest due to the large crowd in the area. Hanson later was "arrested by mail" in which he recieved a summons to appear in court.
Under cross-examination, defense attorney Daniel R. Bush attempted to show that the letters sent to his client were not indicitive of an outright ban on the defendant being on campus. Hanson was bound for trial in Common Pleas Court with an arraignment scheduled for August 28; he remains free on $2,500 unsecured bail. (CP-15-CR-0002388-2007)
The remaining four cases in the late session were continued to later dates; two of those cases involved agreements in which the defendants would plead to summary offenses and have drug related charges withdrawn pending meeting of conditions. Other than that, it was a quite day on the West End. At Courtroom #7 at Common Pleas Court, it was a different story, at least for Sgt. Paris...
Two preliminary hearings in the matter of Commonwealth vs. Kurtis Roach were held before Judge Anthony A. Sarcione yesterday afternoon. Roach, 21, of Harrisburg, had initially waived his preliminary hearings at the District Court level, however due to his rejection to enter Drug Court, Judge Sarcione allowed a preliminary hearing to be held in his court.
The first matter involved charges of drug possession and possession with intent to deliver (CP-15-CR-0000493-07). During that hearing, Sgt. Paris testified that while on duty on January 24 at around 17:30, he observed two males walking southbound on the 700 block of South Church Street as he was purchasing a cup of coffee. Sgt. Paris observed Roach smoking what he suspected was a blunt and smelled an odor of marijuana as the defendant and his acquaintance walked by. Roach was then stopped by the old Nursing School building, where at that time, he allegedly attempted to crumple the blunt he had been smoking. During that time, Tpr. John Nelson of the Pennsylvania State Police, who was off duty at the time, came over to assist Sgt. Paris. Roach allegedly ignored repeated requests to keep his hands out of his pockets. He was placed under arrest shortly thereafter and escorted to the police station.
In a search incident to arrest, Sgt. Paris testified that he located a folding knife with a 5 inch blade and a total of 13 bags of suspected marijuana. The narcotics were field tested with a preliminary positive test for marijuana. The items were sent to the PSP Lima labs in March and confirmed the original test results - a total of 4.1 grams of marijuana found in four small red ziplock bags and a total of 5.7 grams of marijuana found in 9 knotted clear plastic bags. The search also yielded a total of $34.00 in cash which was separated and folded in different denominations.
Subsequent to the search, police performed a search of Roach's apartment on the South Campus complex, where a box containing sandwich bags with a leafy residue found on the outside of the box was recovered. Sgt. Paris noted that there were no rolling papers or blunt wrappers consistent with personal consumption of narcotics located in Roach's apartment during the search. The box was taken into evidence and is in the process of being sent to Lima for testing. Sgt. Paris' testimony lasted nearly an hour.
The Commonwealth called in Chester County Det. David Grandizio as an expert witness. Based on a review of the evidence and Sgt. Paris' testimony, Det. Grandizio testified that, in his opinion, the marijuana was packaged for the purposes of street-level sale or distribution. He also pointed out the way that the money was "layered" when it was recovered by Sgt. Paris during the initial search, noting it was consistent with suspected drug dealers keeping track of how much product was sold and what type of bags were sold.
In this particular case, the $34.00 was folded as a $10 and $5 bill in the first fold, a $5 bill in the second fold, and a $10 with four $1 bills in the third fold. The 4 red ziplock bags were consistent with "dime bags" of marijuana, while the 9 clear bags which were the corner of larger sandwich bags were consistent with "nickel bags" of marijuana. Det. Grandizio also noted that while the campus area itself was not neccesarily known as a "high traffic" drug sale area, the cost of drugs sold on campus tended to be higher due to the higher risk of getting caught by police.
In his closing arguement to Judge Sarcione, defense counsel Jeremiah Kane III attempted to argue that the Commonwealth failed to prove the Possession with Intent to Distribute charge, noting that the total amount of marijuana seized was less than 10 grams in total and cited three cases in which similar amounts of drugs were seized and found not to meet the burden of PWID. Kane also argued that the knife recovered during the search of his client was not consistent with being an instrument of crime, as the Commonwealth failed to establish intent to use the knife during the commission of a crime.
Assistant District Attorney Donna Claire Murphy argued that Sgt. Paris' testimony showed the Commonwealth met its burden to prove a prima facia case in regards to PWID and that the way the drugs were siezed were consistent with drug sales as opposed to personal use. Murphy did not offer an arguement on the instrument of crime charge.
Judge Sarcione bound Roach for trial on Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Deliver, Possession of a Small Amount of Marijuana, and 13 counts of Possession of Drug Paraphanalia, while dismissing the charge of Possession of an Instrument of Crime.
In the second preliminary hearing, Roach was charged with defiant trespassing (CP-15-CR-0000560-2007). Sgt. Paris testified that on January 25 - the day after Roach was arrested on the drug charges - Roach had been notified that he was prohibited from being on campus unless he had permission from the University's office of Student Affairs. At around 17:47 that day, Sgt. Paris observed the defendant in the parking lot of the South Campus apartment complex in East Bradford. After learning that he had failed to obtain permission to be back on campus in order to retrieve his belongings, Roach was placed under arrest for the second time in 24 hours. Prior to being taken into custody, the defendant reportedly took his jewelry off and handed them over to his girlfriend. His university ID card and apartment keys were then confiscated.
Kane attempted to argue that the offense should be graded as a summary offense as opposed to a third degree misdemeanor as the Commonwealth had charged, attempting to show that the new charge was simply a "get off my property" type of incident, thus making is a summary. Murphy, however, alleged that Roach had violated an order to remain off campus that was given to him the previous day.
Roach was bound for trial on the misdemeanor grading of Defiant Trespassing, however Judge Sarcione added that the grading was subject to review at the time of trial. Roach remains free on bail and was scheduled to go to trial sometime next week, however that was continued to Judge Sarcione's next trial term in late July.
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