by peter e. bortner
A Philadelphia man serving time at State Correctional Institution/Mahanoy cannot withdraw his guilty plea to a charge of possessing a weapon in May 2011 in his cell, a three-judge state Superior Court panel has ruled.
In a seven-page opinion filed Tuesday in Pottsville, the panel rejected the appeal of Andre L. Mason, 26, who had alleged he had been pressured into pleading guilty less than a week after saying in court that he had not.
"We find no error in the trial court's determination that (Mason) entered his guilty plea knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently," Judge Cheryl Lynn Allen wrote.
As a result, Mason will serve another six to 12 months in SCI/Mahanoy, the sentence county Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin imposed on April 5, 2012, the day he accepted the defendant's guilty plea to possession of a weapon or implement of escape. Dolbin also sentenced Mason to pay costs and $50 to the Criminal Justice Enhancement Account.
State police at Frackville had charged Mason with possessing a sharpened 7-inch shank, made from a toothbrush handle, on May 26, 2001, in his prison cell.
Mason was in SCI/Mahanoy after being sentenced July 9, 2008, by Montgomery County President Judge Richard J. Hodgson to serve six to 15 years in a state correctional institution. He had been convicted on April 15, 2008, of six counts of conspiracy, two each of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance and one each of carrying a firearm without a license, possession of a weapon and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Norristown police had charged him with committing those crimes on June 6, 2007, in the borough, which is the county seat.
In her opinion, Allen wrote that Mason said when entering his plea that he was doing so voluntarily and that no one had threatened or forced him to do so. Since Mason made those statements under oath in court, he is bound by them and cannot ask to withdraw his plea for a reason that would contradict them, she wrote.
"(Mason) indicated that it was his decision to plead guilty and his plea was being given freely and voluntarily without any force, threats, pressure or intimidation," Allen wrote.
Dolbin had specifically asked Mason if he had been threatened, and thereby coerced into pleading guilty, and the defendant had said no, Allen wrote.
Dolbin also did not err in refusing to hold a hearing on Mason's request, since he had questioned and seen the defendant during the plea hearing, according to Allen.
Mason filed his request to withdraw his plea on April 12, 2012, only one week after entering it.
President Judge Emeritus Kate Ford Elliott and Judge Jack A. Panella, the other panel members, joined in Allen's opinion.