Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

Re: having a statement supressed

A supression motion occurs pre-trial, right before the trial.

The detectives may be able to take a statement from your son with or without your permission. Motions like these really depend on specifics, not on whether you gave permission.

Is your minor son being charged as an adult? If not, there is no preliminary hearing for minors. If your son is charged as an adult, you should be more concerned with decertification then motions.

Good Luck, feel free to call or email.

Re: having a statement supressed

Juvenile Court procedures require a "Transfer Hearing" to be held within ten days after filing of notice of a request for transfer to criminal proceedings. However, if the offense charged is excluded from the definition of a "delinquent act" the case originates as a criminal proceeding as do any cases other than summary offenses where the juvenile has previously been found guilty in criminal proceedings. These can be transferred to Juvenile Court and that's what the other answer indicates, it's called decertification.

As to raising the issue of admissibility at a Preliminary Hearing, it is not usually a successful objection and your attorney may decide not to object to it at that stage especially if there is sufficient other evidence for the prosecution to make out their prima facie case. Usually at a Preliminary Hearing it is not in the Defendant's interest to testify and the attorney wants to get as much information as possible about what the prosecution intends to prove at trial and what evidence they have.