Superior Court 8/29/08 - COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA v. WILLIAM BARGER

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA v. WILLIAM BARGER
No. 1671 MDA 2006 2008 PA Super 202 Atlantic: n/a Filed: 8/29/2008
Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence entered on August 25, 2006, in the Court of Common Pleas of York County, Criminal Division, at No. CP-67-CR-0004998-2005
Before: FORD ELLIOTT, P.J., MUSMANNO, LALLY-GREEN, BENDER, BOWES, PANELLA, DONOHUE, SHOGAN, and ALLEN, JJ.
Opinion by: LALLY-GREEN, J.
Appellant, William Barger, appeals from the judgment of sentence entered on August 25, 2006. We affirm in part and vacate in part.

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On reargument, Appellant raises one issue:

In a bifurcated misdemeanor/felony and summary trial, the jury determined that the Commonwealth’s sole witness was not credible, completely repudiated her allegations involving the same conduct, and acquitted the defendant of all misdemeanor and felony offenses. Pursuant to the doctrine of collateral estoppel under the double jeopardy clauses of the federal and state constitutions, the issue of this single witness’ credibility was decided adverse to the Commonwealth, and it was thereby precluded from relitigating that issue in the non-jury trial on the summary [h]arassment offense. Given that no additional evidence was presented to support the trial court’s verdict, the evidence was insufficient to support the trial court’s finding the defendant guilty of the summary offense of [h]arassment.