Pennsylvania’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) was enacted on December 20, 2011 and established a three-tiered system for classification and defined sexually violent offenses. The Superior Court issued an Opinion on December 21, 2016 in Commonwealth v. Ritz that found SORNA unreasonable and in violation of Due Process Rights if applied retroactively. Read More
The Commonwealth Court recently ruled on a right-to-know request for a casino’s surveillance video that captured a two-vehicle collision. In Pennsylvania State Police v. Kim, the Court found that the video collected by Pennsylvania State Police was a part of a criminal investigation and protected under the Criminal History Record Information Act. The Court’s Read More
Attorney Helen Stolinas of The Mazza Law Group, PC in State College, argued a case of statewide importance involving a police dashcam and the Right to Know Law yesterday before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Her client is Michelle Grove of Spring Mills. The case arose when Ms. Grove filed a request for a “dashcam” Read More
On August 1, 2016, the State College Borough voted 5-2 to adopted the proposed ordinance that reduces the criminal penalty of possession of a small amount of marijuana (30 grams or less) from a misdemeanor offense to a non-traffic summary citation. In Pennsylvania, the possession of a small amount of marijuana is a misdemeanor Read More
New Developments in law from the Supreme Court involving a DUI blood test. In a decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling which has already started to change the way DUI cases will be prosecuted and defended in Pennsylvania. In Birchfield v. N. Dakota, the Supreme Court held that a Read More
Burglary Sentence of 7.5-15 Years Vacated and New Trial Awarded under Post-Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) Defendant was accused of perpetrating a distraction burglary wherein an accomplice preoccupied the homeowner at the front door asking for help with car trouble while the Defendant entered the rear of the house and ran off with a television. Read More
Death Penalty Update: “No man can be a judge in his own case”- wrote Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in a decision on a death penalty case yesterday. In Williams v. Pennsylvania, the US Supreme Court decided that a judge who was involved in the prosecution could not thereafter sit as a state Supreme Read More
Hearsay is a statement that the declarant does not make while testifying at the current hearing or trial and is offered for the truth of the matter asserted. Rules of Evidence allow this type of evidence in certain cases but under limited circumstances. A point of contentions in Pennsylvania is whether this type of Read More
As of October 17, 2015, a Pennsylvania Registered Nurse is now required to report pending criminal charges within 30 days of the filing of criminal charges. In addition, if you have received disciplinary action in another state you are required to report the final disposition to the Board within 90 days. Pursuant to Title Read More
The Commonwealth Court has reversed a driver’s license suspension because the driver’s conviction for DUI was not reported to PennDOT for ten years after her conviction. In Gingrich v. PennDOT, 748 C.D. 2015 , the driver was convicted of a DUI in 2004, but that conviction was not reported to PennDOT until 2014. The Read More