No. 25-6449

Cynthia Lynn Pollick v. Pennsylvania

Lower Court: Pennsylvania
Docketed: 2025-12-30
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
IFP
Tags: constitutional-rights disorderly-conduct due-process legal-counsel pro-se sixth-amendment
Latest Conference: 2026-02-20
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. Whether Petitioner's Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated by Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas, Pennsylvania when it failed to honor this Court's precedent that requires a pro se litigant be provided with legal counsel at the start of her misdemeanor disorderly conduct jury trial when she was jailed in her divorce one week before her criminal trial and had no access to electronic evidence, jury instructions or the prison law library; and therefore, she was not given a fair trial in violation of Fourteenth and Sixth Amendments?

2. Whether the Due Process Clause was violated when the court in Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas, Pennsylvania refused to quash the criminal information when it did not state a crime but rather allowed the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to amend in violation of her constitutional rights provided by the Fourteenth, Fourth and First Amendments?

3. Whether it violated the Fourteenth and First Amendments when Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas, Pennsylvania allowed Petitioner to be charged with a crime when she was not in "public" but rather purportedly one step off her rural driveway onto the rural road with farm equipment in the field across her driveway and miles from the nearest public bus stop?

4. Whether 18 Pa. C.S. § 5503 misdemeanor disorderly conduct is unconstitutionally vague, overbroad and allows discriminatory application since Petitioner was charged with the crime the moment she purportedly stepped off her rural driveway onto the rural road because "persistent" disorderly conduct criminalized constitutionally protected activity on her property?

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated when a pro se litigant was not provided legal counsel during a misdemeanor disorderly conduct trial while incarcerated in a divorce proceeding

Docket Entries

2026-02-23
Petition DENIED.
2026-02-05
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/20/2026.
2026-01-29
Reply of petitioner Cynthia L. Pollick filed.
2026-01-20
Brief of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in opposition submitted.
2026-01-20
Brief of respondent Pennsylvania in opposition filed.
2025-12-05
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due January 29, 2026)

Attorneys

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Lisa Ann SwiftLackawanna Co. Dist. Atty., Respondent
Cynthia L. Pollick
Cynthia L. Pollick — Petitioner