Pennsylvania court proceedings. Is this possible?

This is very specific to PA so I don’t know if anyone here has the answer.

A good friend of my girlfriend got into some legal trouble a few months ago. I think she is lying or hiding things from my girlfriend because it does not seem to add up to me. I know how something similar would be handled in NJ and it seems weird that it would be so different just a few miles away.

I will spare the details of the arrest. I think the account being told is heavily edited anyway. Bottom line, she was arrest for eluding, DWI and refusing to give a sample of blood or breath. At some point she went to court and pled guilty to something. She had to spend a weekend in jail. I know that happened since my girlfriend drove her. She also had her license suspended. 

Here is where it gets weird. The friend is saying that she has to go back to court to be heard on the refusal charge and maybe some other matters. She is also talking about an appeal. 

That makes no sense to me. In our court since all those charges came from one event all would be heard at one time. If there was a plea bargain (which there seems to be) the most likely outcome would be a guilty plea to the DWI and merging and reducing other charges. Splitting up the charges to have multiple court dates covering each one seems unlikely and too complicated. And appealing after a guilty plea has very little chance of going anywhere. And the sentence was already carried out so there seems to be little reason to do it anyway.

So does anyone know the procedures for such cases in PA? Would they split the refusal and DWI charges into two separate court cases? Have I explained this properly or is it a jumbled mess?

I would love to see the police report. I have a feeling some interesting facts would be revealed.

Is it possible that she was doing something else that led to the weekend in jail - fighting, soliciting, whatever gets an automatic penalty like that. Now she faces the refusal charge.

Anything is possible. I’m asking if her account is plausible. I already believe she isn’t telling the truth. I’m trying to find out if I could be wrong.

PA resident here. AFAIK, refusal for a breathalyzer/blood-test is a big deal and carries automatic penalties.

Loach, you’re a cop, right? Just curious, as a friend is a cop and a couple times when friends have been in sketchy situations he was able to"ask around".

From what I gather the refusal law there is similar to here except possibly with heavier penalties.

I have no contacts in PA and I’m not 100% sure which jurisdiction it happened in.

A friend of mine (in PA) just had his sentencing for DUI/refusal to take a breathalyzer. Assuming I understand things correctly, refusing is a big deal in that it means that the penalties you receive for the DUI are the same as if you tested in the highest tier. So it’s something like you lose your license for two months and you avoid jail time by going to classes on your first offense.

In his case, the refusal and DUI (and damage to public property and possibly a couple other more minor charges) were all handled together. He didn’t have eluding and I’m pretty sure he didn’t have resisting arrest either.

If you know the county, you can probably look her up on PA Portal. Look her up by changing search type to participant name and then choose your county.

Is it possible that the “one weekend” came with conditions (probation?), and now she’s been nailed for violating the terms of that probation, has to face a judge to answer for failing to meet the conditions?

(IANAL, have limited understanding of USA law, but as a wild-ass guess based on the way these things usually go, maybe she failed a drug test that was part of the probation?)

Maybe she pleaded guilty to the eluding charge but wants to contest the DUI or refusal. It’s sometimes more efficient to postpone sentence on the guilty plea till after the trial on the contested matters, but much depends on things like the relative gravity of the offences, and whether the defendant might be thought to be gaming the system-putting off the evil day, as it were. I agree with you that ordinarily, such things would be more efficiently dealt with together, but different pleas may change that. Since she went to jail, we can presume this is not her first time at the rodeo.

I agree with you that talk of an appeal sounds hopelessly unrealistic.

Not a PA lawyer here, just my tuppence.

Could she have been jailed, had a hearing at which she entered a plea, and then had to stay in jail until she posted bond? Because all that could happen without an actual trial taking place. She could have entered a plea at the hearing and now this is the trial that was scheduled based on the plea. If that’s the case, then all the charges are probably still together.

That is certainly not what happened. My girlfriend drove her to the jail where she had to check in for her sentence. This was a couple of months after the incident.

Well sure. I can and have come up with multiple scenarios that could have happened given the assumption that she is lying. I’m trying to find out if it is possible she is telling the truth.

I suppose that is possible but I have never seen that happen here. And splitting them would rarely benefit the defendant. I’m trying to find out if that is routine in PA.

That does help a bit but doesn’t answer all the questions.

I may have an answer but I only heard it 2nd hand and don’t have a cite. Apparently PENDOT treats a refusal differently than any other statute. In this case there was a plea deal involving the eluding, DWI and other included motor vehicle offenses. The plea included a DL suspension. However there is going to be a separate civil hearing with PENDOT for the refusal which will include an additional suspension.

To me it doesn’t make much sense and it is certainly not done that way here. If anyone has knowledge of that I would appreciate a cite.

PA resident who spends too much time around cops and judges. The refusal is a big deal under state law and would be handled as its own offense under state court while a lot of the other matters would be more local and/or county violations and tried that way. Especially if the police involved were less than State Police.

PA is an odd place with strange habits/customs. Just look up Unca Cecils old tale of the PA Department of Ag.