Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

Re: disorderly conduct / assault battery

The term "adding charges" is not so straight forward. Double jeopardy means that you cannot be tried twice for the same crime. If you have already been found guilty, meaning you entered a guilty plea, and a judge accepted your plea, then they cannot add new charges. However, if you have simply entered a not guilty plea at an arraignment, the DA has several options as far as adding new charges.

In addition, even if you plea guilty to a crime, the DA may be able to rearrest you for new charges if a new fact or occurance is added to the initial complainant. For example, if you shot someone, the bullet was lodged in their chest, and they live, you would be charges with Assault. If you plead guilty to assault, you would get sentenced and the case would be over. However, if three years later the bullet came loose and killed the person, you could be rearrested for murder.

Feel free to email again as this is a fact specific question. Good Luck.