Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

i have a question about the jurisdiction if a child (17) was seduced, or however you want to put it, by a coach/teacher at the school they attended and had a sexual relationship with them. if parts of the seduction/flirting/abuse of power/touching but no actual intercourse occurred in one county, and other sexual acts occurred in a different county, which county has jurisdiction? can the crime be reported to police in either county? planning to get together/texts/emails and the school that the victim attended are in one county, and other acts occurred in another county.. any thoughts?


Asked on 7/28/11, 7:07 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Matthew Jorden Jorden and White Law Firm, LLP

The county where the criminal act took place has jurisdiction for that criminal act. Therefore, to answer your question, if criminal acts took place on different occasions in different counties, then each county has jurisdiction over the criminal acts that occurred in that particular county. It does not matter if the defendant and the victim are the same for each crime.

A classic example is Defendant kidnaps Victim in county A, then Defendant murders Victim in county B. Technically, Defendant could be prosecuted in county A for kidnapping, and also, prosecuted in county B for murder.

Now, the District Attorneys' Office in each of the counties could, if they wanted to, agree to proceed with all the charges in a single county. They would have to get permission from the Courts. Most often this occurs when the Defendant is involved in some scheme that results in multiple crimes to multiple victims in multiple jurisdictions. For convenience, the courts will allow all the charges to be tried in one venue, so long as there is no substantial prejudice to the Defendant.

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Answered on 7/29/11, 7:00 am


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