A distinguished lawyer call our office this morning to discuss a previous post on summary offenses, where the reader could interpret our post to mean that summary offenses are not crimes. He stated that under Commonwealth v. Matty, 619 A.2d 1383 (Pa. Super. 1993), certain summary offenses are in fact crimes because if you face jail time in a case, it is a criminal case.
First, summary offenses are broken into two categories, traffic offenses and non-traffic offenses. Certain traffic offenses are not criminal offenses, but can carry jail time. Therefore, I respectfully disagree with my colleage that if you are looking at jail time, the case that puts you in jail must be a crime.
Further, in Matty, the issue is whether a conviction for a summary conviction can stand when a crime was charged to the jury. The issue in the case is NOT whether a summary offense is a crime. Clearly, 18 Pa.C.S.A. sec. 106, defines all gradations of crimes and summaries are not listed. Therefore a summary offense is not a crime technically. Therefore, I respectfully disagree with my colleague regarding the syntax of the case and the PA Code.
However, summary offenses are reported to the Pennsylvani State Police and they pop-up on record checks (traffic offenses do not appear on criminal record checks). Regardless of how one reads the Matty case or sec. 106, if you are convicted of a Summary Offense, you may face jail time and the Summary Offense will come up in a crminal record check.
A Summary Offense is expungeable and a Summary Offense is reported on a criminal record check. This debate about whether a Summary Offense is a criminal offense is of no moment. The real issue is whether a Summary conviction can effect your life and liberty? The answer is clearly: yes.
Tags: criminal offenses, criminal record checks, disorderly conduct, expungement, harassment, state police, summary, summary conviction, summary offense, traffic offenses
I have been issued summary offense (non-traffic) citations in the past. They were issued by local police and I paid fines, no jail time. It was my understanding that summary offenses only appear on PSP record checks if a PSP officer issued the citation. I have read my own PSP criminal history and no summary offenses appeared on it even though I have a few. Does the PSP not include summary offenses on criminal history reports when requested by citizens? Or do they not know or care about summary citations issued by municipal police?
FWIW, leash law violations and false alarm violations are written out on the same non-traffic citation form. So by what you are saying, if my burglar alarm goes off and the police arrive to find it was a false alarm and then issue me a non-traffic citation for which I pay a fine…that becomes part of my criminal history????
I don’t know the answer relating to the leash law and false alarm issue. I would be interested if you ordered a certified record from the Pennsylvania State Police, to see how that certified report would read. I would also like to see the best report from an internet provider like intelius, and see how that reads.
I will still stick to my early answers to these questions that I am far less concerned with what is or is not a crime. I am more concerned with how these issue are reported by the state police and the fbi.
Let me give you a hypothetical example. I am lawyer and you come to me for advice I tell you that leash law violations are NOT crimes. You have five leash law violations. I tell you not to worry about them. You apply for a job as a paralegal and the lawyer who interviews you interview hates her neighbor. The reason she hates her neighbor is because the lawyer’s kid got bit last year by the neighbor’s dog because the dog wasn’t properly leashed. The job interview goes fine and the lawyer wants to hire you. The lawyer then conducts her normal background check on all of her potential new hires. Because she is a lawyer, she only uses the most top-notch background check. The five leash law violations come on the report. Do you think you will get hired?
Again, I don’t think the issue is whether it is crime, but rather how it is reported.
Does a summary offense non-traffic, could be used against an individual for immigration purposes? Could someone not be eligle for cancellation of deportation for a summary offense of this source? Could anyone give me any guidance as to where I could read about similar cases in Pennsylvania? Thank you!
I understand your point but I think the two issues in your last sentence go hand in hand. How it’s reported has everything to do with whether it’s considered a crime or not. Apparently a conviction of a summary offense is not considered a “conviction of a crime” unless jail time was served. If you are issued a summary citation and pay your fine without ever being booked or printed, I believe the story ends at your local magistrate. Obviously anything and everything can now be found on the UJS site but that is not an official criminal record.
If you’re not booked for a crime, I highly doubt it shows up on NCIC. I really don’t think the FBI cares about your public urination charge but I do not know for sure.
Interestingly enough, some job applications now specifically address PA residents and state to not list summary offenses unless it involved certain circumstances, like theft.
Our summary offense system is odd but sometimes good in a way. Doing things that net you a citation in PA will get you booked and held on bond in other states (and definitely reported to NCIC).
@Jon, I agree with everything you are saying. My point to the original lawyer that I spoke with is exactly your point that all of this is semantics. We get many phone calls from people telling us they have paid an internet company to run a criminal record check for them and it comes back showing the summary offense.
If you run a background check and the summary offense shows up, to me it is semantics whether you think it is a crime or not. To me the answer is, GET RID OF IT, because if I can find it, a future employer or graduate school can find it too.
@Kenia, in the last year or so, we have heard some bizarre ICE issues dealing with deportation. It seems like folks can get deported or get denied entry into the United States for just about anything.
If the summary is older then 5 years, we can most likely get it expunged. I am not certain how ICE would view the expungement, but my guess is that they would honor the expungement.
I am surprised to hear that a summary is cause all of these immigration issues.
if you have a non traffic disorderly conduct hazardous physical offense-summary and are found guilty by a summary hearing, what does that mean? And what is an example of a non traffic diorderly conduct hazardus physical offense? If you are found guilty and pay a fine does this show on a criminal background check, and could it affect custody of a child?
A guilty for a summary offense for a for a non traffic disorderly conduct will show up on a criminal background check. After five years pass, you may be able to get it removed from your record through an expungement.
Whether that conviction is criminal or not is irrelevant because the conviction is reported on your criminal background history from the Pennsylvania State Police. If you have already been convicted of Disorderly Conduct, an example of Disorderly Conduct is irrelevant because even if you were falsely convicted, based on your question, you are outside the window of appeal. I have no idea how this can effect child custody.
I would like to know who comes up with the laws in Pennsylvania. Honestly they are nothing like the laws in the rest of the country. What happened to freedom of speech? Well I will tell you if you live in certain counties in PA, you have no right to freedom of speech. The people in this wonderful town that we moved to make there own laws up as they go. Who cares what the rest of the United States has for laws when you live in certain counties. They charge a 13 year old with disorderly conduct, for swearing at an adult who swore at him first. However you can tamper with mail here and have no problems with the law. You can even hand out bibles at the public schools. Makes sense right? How about when you go to the volunteer fire station to face summary offense charges. The states witness get’s up on the stand and lie’s completely. But because the law judge knows the mother and dated the cousin and married into the uncles family of the witness that is lying on the stand your evidence to prove that they fabricated everything that is coming out of there mouth’s is not admissible. As a result of being wrongfully convicted in this state, someone that was convicted 19 years ago of rape, got a new trial all because the judge wanted to help out there friends. Nice! What a joke this place is!
In my experience, summary offenses often do NOT appear on Pennsylvania background checks. With a few exceptions (summary retail theft being a main one), summary offenses issued as non-traffic citations rarely appear on PA RAP Sheets. However, the NT summary docket will show up on the UJS Portal.
On the other hand, if the case is originally charged as a court case (misdemeanors or felony), and later reduced to a summary case, the summary conviction is likely to appear on the background check. This is especially true if the summary plea was arranged at the Court of Common Pleas.
Bottom line: Find out what is on your official criminal history. You can order your complete PA criminal history via form SP4-164 (epatch.state.pa.us/help/sp4164.doc).
Choose “Individual Access and Review” as the reason for the request.
If a summary conviction does appear, and five arrest free years have elapsed since the date of conviction, contact a lawyer about expungement. The applicable expungement statute is 18 Pa. C.S. 9122(b).
It should be noted that it may be improper for employers or licensing agencies to deny applicants on the basis of summary offense convictions. See 18 Pa. C.S. 9124 and 9125.
I often wonder if the issue is just about the internet catching up to the reporting. I would still recommend getting rid of all summaries. Perception is reality.
Hello M:
Do you know if a juvenile summary offense for retail theft is reported to the NCIC? I am currently about to take my series 6 and 63 license and must have a clean background. I plead guilty to retail theft when I was 16. Do you know if this will affect me trying to obtain my licenses?
@AMC: you can order a copy of your NCIC from the PA state police for a very cheap price. It will show you exactly what is reported. You can also use intellius, though I am in no way adverting, endorsing, etc., but sometimes, I use intellius to compare it to what I get from the PA state police.
If you want me to guess, I would say, yes it is reported. Depending on your age, we can most likely get it expunged regardless of how it is reported.
What about summary offenses issued by the Game and Wildlife commission? Would they show up on a criminal record check?
@adan, same answer as my previous. i would order a copy of your NCIC from the PA state police and read it.
I committed a non-traffic summary offense 10 years ago. I need to do a NCIC background check for an overseas work visa. I ran a check on my record at epatch.state.pa.us and it came up clean. I’m wondering, however, if the Pennsylvania UJS record (which I assume will contain the offense since it is not expunged) will show up on the NCIC check.
Someone here wrote: “Obviously anything and everything can now be found on the UJS site but that is not an official criminal record…If you’re not booked for a crime, I highly doubt it shows up on NCIC.”
Does anyone know if it will show up or not for certain?
Thank you!
Brett said: “Does anyone know if it will show up or not for certain?”
I have a good amount of summary offenses such as disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. No retail theft though. I was never “booked” (photographed, fingerprinted, formally charged) for any of the charges.
I’ve seen my PA state police rap sheet and I’ve seen my FBI NCIC report which was furnished to me by the DOD. There were no summary offenses on either report. You cannot “order” an NCIC report as Brian Zeiger suggests but I can tell you if a summary charge is not showing on your PA state police report, it won’t be on NCIC. In addition to federal charges, all NCIC does is query each of the 50 states for possible rap sheets on the subject.
You have to realize that violating a leash law or other lame municipal ordinance is a summary offense too. No LE agency really cares to report this stuff, at least not yet.
BUT, since summary offenses can be easily located on the UJS site, I would suggest getting them expunged. You never know where HR departments will look these days.