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232 Pa. Super. 57

Commonwealth v. Alexander

Superior Court of Pennsylvania

Decided December 11, 1974

Superior Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1974-12-11

Relies on Morrissey v. Brewer · Commonwealth v. Kates

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1974-12-11

How this case has been cited

Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently October 2000

20 state decisions

1401974198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1Dissenting Opinion by

Van deb Voort, J.:

¶2The appellant, Henry L. Alexander, on December 6, 1971, entered pleas of guilty to two charges of burglary. After a pre-sentence investigation, appellant was sentenced to probation for a period of three years (upon payment of costs) on each of the two counts, said pro-bations to run consecutively.

¶3On September 21, 1973, a Probation Violation Hearing was held, with no action taken on the alleged violation. The matter was continued instead on condition that appellant enroll at a drug rehabilitation center and work out a schedule for the payment of costs. Subsequently, appellant was arrested by the police on *63charges of burglary, theft, and receiving stolen goods. Appellant’s probation officer discovered the fact of these arrests and lodged a detainer at the Delaware County Prison on January 18, 1974, for probation violation. The agent visited appellant at the jail on January 26, 1974, and orally advised appellant that he had violated his probation because of the arrest. A Probation Violation Hearing took place on February 1, 1974, at which time the probation violations were alleged to be:

¶4(1) Appellant’s arrest on the strength of probable cause; and

¶5(2) Appellant’s failure to report the arrest to the parole officer. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Court revoked appellant’s probation and sentenced appellant to serve two terms of imprisonment of two and one-half to five years, plus costs of prosecution, said sentences to run consecutively.

¶6Appellant argues that his due process rights, as enumerated in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S. Ct. 2593, 33 L. Ed. 2d 484 (1972) and Commonwealth v. Kates, 452 Pa. 102, 305 A. 2d 701 (1973), have been violated in that he was not given written notice of all the charges against him. (Appellant alleges other due process violations, but they are totally without merit.) Our Supreme Court has said that “the minimum due process requirements . . . include (a) written notice of the claimed violations of [probation]. . . .” 452 Pa. at 117-118.

¶7It is clear that appellant was informed orally that he had violated his parole by being arrested, but that he was never formally informed before the hearing itself that his failure to report the arrest would also be a charge against him.

¶8Despite his belated claim that the violation of probation proceedings should be declared a nullity the *64appellant has made no allegations that he was unaware that he had violated his probation by failing to inform his parole officer of his arrest; he has not alleged (nor can we define from the record) any prejudice to himself and he failed to object before the time of the hearing to the failure of the agent to specify the alleged violations in writing. These circumstances indicate that the want of written notice was not a matter of importance to appellant, and by his conduct he has waived his right to such notice.

¶9I would not remand the case for a new hearing on the probation violation but would affirm the action of the trial court.

¶10Cercione, J., joins.

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