Commonwealth v. Young

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

JUSTICE NOBLE

This case presents the question whether biological parents who accept living expenses from two different sets of prospective adoptive parents without disclosing that fact may be charged with and convicted of theft by deception. It also presents the question whether the amounts paid by the two sets of prospective adoptive parents may be combined to elevate the theft, which would otherwise have been a Class D felony, above the $10,000 threshold to make it a Class C felony.

The biological parents in this case, Michael and Janie Young, raised the first issue to…