philadelphia criminal defense attorney lawyer» disorderly conduct

Disorderly Conduct can be a Misdemeanor or a Summary offense

glevin@hlzlaw.com — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:56:19 +0000

I have spoken to many people who are confused about why they are charged with a misdemeanor when their only offense is disorderly conduct. The simple answer is the gradation of the offense depends on how disorderly you were. A person is generally guilty of disorderly conduct if “with intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, he: (1) engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior; (2) makes unreasonable noise; (3) uses obscene language, or makes an obscene gesture; or (4)creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor.”

The gradation for the above described activity is as follows “An offense under this section is a misdemeanor of the third degree if the intent of the actor is to cause substaintial harm or serious inconvenience, or if he persists in disorderly conduct after reasonble warning or request to desist. Otherwise disorderly conduct is a summary offense.“

In my experience people are almost always charged with disorderly conduct as a summary. The times where I see the commonwealth pursue the misdemeanor is when the defendant’s behavior is extraordinary or where it is done in a highly populated public area. It is difficult to cause substantial harm or serious inconvenience when you are by yourself or with only a small group of people. I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion.

Is a Summary Offense a Crime?

Brian Zeiger — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:36:50 +0000

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.

Summary Offenses in Pennsylvania

Brian Zeiger — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:44:18 +0000

Summary Offenses in Pennsylvania range from disorderly conduct to speeding tickets. Summary offenses are broken down into two categories, traffic and non traffic offenses. Non traffic summary offenses DO appear in criminal record history checks even though summary offenses are actually not criminal convictions like misdemeanors and felonies. Summary offenses are often reviewed by potential employers and should be taken seriously even though they are not criminal convictions.

Some of the most common summary offenses we see are disorderly conduct, public drunkenness, retail theft, and harassment. Often times when the police don’t really have any real crime to charge , but they want to assert their power against you, they use a summary offense as a guise to make a lawful arrest and say that your conduct was unlawful.

For example, I have had many cases where clients tell me that they observed the police making a bad arrest or physically inflicting harm against someone they were trying to arrest and my client started yelling at the officer about the way they were treating the other human being, or they were capturing the treatment on video from their cell phone. Another officer approaches my client and arrests them for disorderly conduct, and magically, their phone disappears.

Summary offenses are expungeable in Pennsylvania, even if convicted. If five years pass with no other incidents with the law, you may apply for an expungement with the Court of Common Pleas, and there will be a full hearing as to whether the summary conviction with be expunged. Unlike and ARD (Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition), there is no automatic right to expungement–you must win the hearing.