December 01, 2009
- Steven Topazio wrote this April 27, 2014 at 10:00 am
The defendant was charged with Possession of Class B, two counts of ABPO and resisting arrest, when he was found to be in possession of aspirin which the police believed to be cocaine. Despite Attorney Topazio arguing that the substance that was found was aspirin, his client who was in custody on a probation detainer on a different case and bail on this case, decided to tender a plea. The Commonwealth argued that the substance found, on visual inspection, appeared to be cocaine and would not dismiss that charge. Attorney Topazio requested that as a condition of the original plea wanted the court to order the Commonwealth to provide him with a copy of the drug certification and to reconsider the sentence should the drugs test negative, which they subsequently did. Today, after the Commonwealth dismissed the drug charge, on the oral motion to reconsider argued by Attorney Topazio, Attorney Topazio tried to convert his client’s sentence (which was a split sentence with 3 years supervised probation including the requirement of completing the Office of Community Corrections Level III program) into a time served sentence on the remaining counts, but that did not happen. Instead Attorney Topazio persuaded the court to strike the condition that his client complete OCC Level III and further caused the court to switch his client’s probation form supervised to unsupervised. Community Corrections Centers are community based, intensive supervision sites, which deliver bundled sanctions and services, including treatment and education, to high risk offenders via Intermediate Sanction Levels. Intermediate Sanction Level III is an intense level of community-based, criminal justice supervision. Sanctions and services required at this level of supervision represent a daily imposition upon the liberty of the offender. Level III participants are required to report to the community corrections center for one to four hours per day, three to five days per week. Offenders placed at Intermediate Sanction Level III may be monitored via electronic device. Level III also requires random drug and alcohol testing, and attendance at one four hour community service shift per week.