Commonwealth v. Lehman

OPINION

Justice EAKIN.

This case presents the question of whether the Municipal Police Jurisdiction Act (MPJA), 42 Pa.C.S. § 8953, is violated when a police officer leaves his primary jurisdiction to investigate a citizen’s report of a motorist in distress in an adjacent municipality, finds probable cause to believe the motorist is intoxicated, and detains the motorist until an officer from that jurisdiction arrives. We hold it is not.

In the early morning hours of August 14, 1999, a private citizen stopped Officer Robert Wagner of the New Wilmington Police Department and informed him a red car…