Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

Re: Time period between incident and arrest

Obviously, no finite answers exist to questions like the one you asked. Only the judge before whom your case is listed knows what their answer will be to a question like the one you have asked.

However, in general, the question you are asking deals with pre-trial arrest delay. The test to determine whether this motion to dismiss should be granted has two prongs: first, was there an unusually long delay, and why did the delay exist; two, how are your prejudiced by the delay.

From my experience, the first prong is easily met. In your case you say that it took a year and a half for the arrest, which is obviously unusually long. However, the second prong is always tough to prove. How were you prejudiced? Did you have a witness or a piece of evidence that would have proved your innocence but now that person or that evidence is gone due to the unusually long delay? In other words, how have you been prejudiced on a simple possession case? If you cannot show real prejudice other than your own inconvenience and the fact that you don�t want to be prejudiced, may lose this motion. On the other hand, the judge may be appalled by the delay and simply dismiss the case. This issue really depends on the judge.

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Re: Time period between incident and arrest

I agree with the response by Atty. Zeiger. In addition, the answer is that there is usually a two-year statute of limitations on most misdemeanor criminal charges. Certain crimes have shorter, or longer, statutes of limitations.