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FAILURE TO HOLD A SANDOVAL HEARING AND ALLOWING PRIOR CONSISTENT STATEMENTS TO BOLSTER THE COMPLAINING WITNESS’S TESTIMONY REQUIRED REVERSAL.

The Fourth Department, reversing defendant’s conviction, determined the court’s failure to hold a Sandoval hearing concerning the admissibility of prior uncharged crimes or bad acts as impeachment evidence required reversal. Defendant was in fact cross-examined about prior bad acts strikingly similar to the charges against him. In addition, the trial court erred in allowing testimony of prior consistent statements by the complaining witness, i.e., “bolstering:”

The Criminal Procedure Law provides that, “[u]pon a request by a defendant, the prosecutor shall notify the defendant of all specific instances of a defendant’s prior uncharged criminal, vicious or immoral conduct of which the prosecutor has knowledge and which the prosecutor intends to use at trial for purposes of impeaching the credibility of the defendant” (CPL 240.43). Here, however, the prosecutor failed “to advise defendant before trial that he would be questioned on uncharged acts if he testified[,] and no pretrial inquiry or determination was made by the court . . . Because the court’s failure to conduct a proper pretrial inquiry may have affected defendant’s decision to testify at trial, the error cannot be deemed harmless” … . …

“The term bolstering’ is used to describe the presentation in evidence of a prior consistent statement—that is, a statement that a testifying witness has previously made out of court that is in substance the same as his or her in-court testimony” … . Although “[p]rior consistent statements will often be less prejudicial to the opposing party than other forms of hearsay, since by definition the maker of the statement has said the same thing in court that he said out of it” … , the Court of Appeals has warned that “the admission of prior consistent statements may, by simple force of repetition, give to a [factfinder] an exaggerated idea of the probative force of a party’s case” … . Contrary to the People’s sole contention, “[i]n light of the importance of the witnesses’ credibility in this case . . . , we cannot conclude that the court’s error is harmless” … . People v Memon, 2016 NY Slip Op 08653, 4th Dept 12-23-16

 

CRIMINAL LAW (FAILURE TO HOLD A SANDOVAL HEARING AND ALLOWING PRIOR CONSISTENT STATEMENTS TO BOLSTER THE COMPLAINING WITNESS’S TESTIMONY REQUIRED REVERSAL)/EVIDENCE (CRIMINAL LAW, FAILURE TO HOLD A SANDOVAL HEARING AND ALLOWING PRIOR CONSISTENT STATEMENTS TO BOLSTER THE COMPLAINING WITNESS’S TESTIMONY REQUIRED REVERSAL)/SANDOVAL HEARING (FAILURE TO HOLD A SANDOVAL HEARING AND ALLOWING PRIOR CONSISTENT STATEMENTS TO BOLSTER THE COMPLAINING WITNESS’S TESTIMONY REQUIRED REVERSAL)/PRIOR CRIMES AND BAD ACTS (FAILURE TO HOLD A SANDOVAL HEARING AND ALLOWING PRIOR CONSISTENT STATEMENTS TO BOLSTER THE COMPLAINING WITNESS’S TESTIMONY REQUIRED REVERSAL)/PRIOR CONSISTENT STATEMENTS (CRIMINAL LAW, BOLSTERING, ALLOWING PRIOR CONSISTENT STATEMENTS TO BOLSTER THE COMPLAINING WITNESS’S TESTIMONY REQUIRED REVERSAL)/HEARSAY (CRIMINAL LAW, BOLSTERING, ALLOWING PRIOR CONSISTENT STATEMENTS TO BOLSTER THE COMPLAINING WITNESS’S TESTIMONY REQUIRED REVERSAL)/EVIDENCE (CRIMINAL LAW, BOLSTERING, ALLOWING PRIOR CONSISTENT STATEMENTS TO BOLSTER THE COMPLAINING WITNESS’S TESTIMONY REQUIRED REVERSAL)/BOLSTERING (CRIMINAL LAW, ALLOWING PRIOR CONSISTENT STATEMENTS TO BOLSTER THE COMPLAINING WITNESS’S TESTIMONY REQUIRED REVERSAL)

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