Criminal use of a communication facility in Pennsylvania is a third-degree felony under 18 Pa.C.S. § 7512 that makes it a crime to use a phone, computer, or any other device that transmits information to commit, cause, or help carry out a felony. Each conviction carries up to seven years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000, and every separate use of the device is a separate count. That stacking is what makes the statute dangerous: a handful of calls and texts tied to one drug transaction can produce a stack of felony charges that dwarfs the underlying offense.
What the Statute Prohibits
Section 7512 targets a specific behavior: using a communication device to commit, cause, or facilitate any crime classified as a felony under Pennsylvania’s Crimes Code or under the state’s Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Section 7512 – Criminal Use of Communication Facility The underlying felony does not need to have been completed. Facilitating an attempt is enough, so a text arranging a drug deal that never actually happens can still support a charge if the message was sent for that purpose.
The statutory language turns on purpose. The person must have used the facility “to commit, cause or facilitate” the felony, which means prosecutors have to tie the specific communication to the specific criminal objective. Owning a phone that was nearby, or making an unrelated call during the same window of time, is not enough. The connection usually comes from call logs, text messages, social media records, and digital forensic analysis showing which communications advanced the plan.
Because § 7512 requires an underlying felony, it does not attach to misdemeanors or summary offenses. If the primary felony is dismissed or reduced to a misdemeanor through suppression or a plea, the communication-facility counts typically fall with it. That dependency shapes how these cases are negotiated and defended.
What Counts as a Communication Facility
The definition is deliberately broad. It covers any public or private tool used to transmit signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, or data, and specifically lists telephone, wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, and photo-optical systems, as well as the mail.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Section 7512 – Criminal Use of Communication Facility In practical terms that reaches smartphones, landlines, computers, email, social media platforms, encrypted messaging apps, two-way radios, and physical letters.
Switching to a disappearing-message app does not insulate anyone from the statute. Courts look at what the device did, not what brand it is or how its encryption works. Law enforcement can often recover deleted data through device forensics, carrier records, or the other party’s device, and deliberately destroying relevant communications can create additional legal exposure for obstruction.
How the Penalties Stack
A § 7512 violation is a third-degree felony punishable by up to seven years in prison2Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Section 1103 – Sentence of Imprisonment for Felony and a fine of up to $15,000 per count.3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Section 1101 – Fines Those are statutory maximums; the actual sentence depends on Pennsylvania’s sentencing guidelines, the defendant’s criminal history, and the judge’s discretion.
The math gets alarming because each use of the device is a separate offense.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Section 7512 – Criminal Use of Communication Facility Five calls and three texts arranging a single drug transaction can produce eight separate felony counts. Even modest sentences on each count, run consecutively, can extend total prison exposure well beyond what the underlying felony alone would carry. That leverage is exactly why prosecutors add these counts to drug and fraud cases, and why they often appear in multiples.
How These Charges Usually Come Up
Drug cases are by far the most common setting. A phone call arranging a sale, a text confirming a delivery location, or a social media message negotiating price on a quantity of a controlled substance all fit squarely within the statute. Fraud investigations and other serious felony prosecutions also attract § 7512 counts whenever the evidence shows the defendant coordinated the underlying crime through a device.
Prosecutors frequently use stacked communication-facility counts as leverage in plea talks, offering to drop some or all of them in exchange for a guilty plea on the primary felony. The reverse is also true. A strong defense against the underlying charge, or a successful motion to suppress the digital evidence, can collapse the whole stack at once.
Defenses That Work
Effective defenses usually attack one of three things: the link between the communication and the crime, how the evidence was gathered, or the grade of the underlying offense.
Breaking the link is the most direct approach. If a particular call or message was about something unrelated to the alleged felony, the facilitation element fails for that count. A defendant who called a co-conspirator to discuss a family matter has not committed a § 7512 offense during that call, even if other communications on the same phone clearly advanced the criminal plan. Ambiguous messages can also be challenged on the ground that the defense’s reading, not the prosecution’s suspicious reading, is the correct one.
Suppression can be powerful because digital evidence has to be collected lawfully. In Riley v. California (2014), the U.S. Supreme Court held that police need a warrant before searching the contents of a cell phone seized during an arrest. If officers searched a phone without a warrant and no recognized exception applies, the text messages and call records pulled from that search may be suppressed, which can gut the prosecution’s ability to prove the communication-facility counts at all.
Challenging the grade of the underlying offense is the third angle. Section 7512 applies only when the underlying crime is a felony. If the evidence actually supports only a misdemeanor version of the underlying charge, or if the prosecution overcharged the grade, the communication-facility counts do not stand.
Federal Charges for the Same Conduct
Pennsylvania’s statute has a federal counterpart. Under 21 U.S.C. § 843(b), it is unlawful to knowingly or intentionally use any communication facility to commit or facilitate any felony under the federal Controlled Substances Act. The federal version carries up to four years in prison for a first offense and up to eight years for someone with a prior drug-felony conviction.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 21 USC 843 – Prohibited Acts C
Because the state and federal governments are separate sovereigns, nothing in the Constitution bars prosecution by both for the same conduct. Federal prosecutors tend to pick up cases involving larger quantities, interstate activity, or organized networks, but anyone facing state § 7512 charges whose conduct also crossed state lines should take the possibility of a parallel federal case seriously.
Collateral Consequences of a Felony Conviction
Prison time and fines are not the end of the damage. A § 7512 conviction is a felony, and that status carries consequences that follow a person long after the sentence ends.
- Firearms. Pennsylvania law bars people convicted of certain felonies and drug-related offenses from possessing firearms. Because § 7512 charges almost always accompany drug felonies or violent crimes that fall within § 6105’s reach, a conviction frequently means a permanent loss of gun rights.5Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Section 6105 – Persons Not to Possess, Use, Manufacture, Control, Sell or Transfer Firearms
- Employment. Pennsylvania has hundreds of employment-related consequences tied to felony convictions, affecting access to professional licenses and certain jobs. Most are discretionary rather than automatic, but a felony record creates a real barrier in fields that require background checks or state licensing.
- Asset forfeiture. Electronic devices used to facilitate criminal activity can be seized, and the government can pursue civil forfeiture of phones, computers, and other equipment used in the offense even without a conviction.
Anyone facing a criminal use of a communication facility charge in Pennsylvania should treat it as what it is: a felony with real prison exposure, often multiplied across counts, with consequences that extend well past the courtroom. Getting counsel involved early matters, both to protect against unlawful searches of devices and to shape how the underlying felony is charged and resolved.