Commonwealth v. Jenkins

WOOD, J.,

I must decide whether or not Marcia Jenkins is entitled to file a late appeal because of some breakdown in the court system that worked to her disadvantage. The more general question is whether or not district justices are obliged by Pa.R.C.P. 59(a)(1)1 to require some written assurance, when a check is sent in following a citation, that the person sending the citation is the defendant and that the defendant does in fact wish to plead guilty.

What happened in this case (and I have this on the authority of the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case) is that a citation was…