EVIDENCE OF SERIOUS PHYSICAL INJURY INSUFFICIENT, ASSAULT SECOND CONVICTION VACATED (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, vacating the assault second conviction, determined the evidence of “serious physical injury” was insufficient:

​The Legislature has defined the term “[s]erious physical injury” to mean “physical injury which creates a substantial risk of death, or which causes death or serious and protracted disfigurement, protracted impairment of health or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ” … .

Here … the evidence at the trial failed to demonstrate that the complainant suffered the protracted impairment of the function of a bodily organ as a result of the attack charged in count 2 of the indictment. This prong of the statute, by the plain language of the word “protracted,” requires evidence that the effects of the physical injury were experienced over an “extended” period of time … .  The People fail to cite to any evidence in this case, medical or otherwise, to show that the injury to the complainant resulted in any “protracted impairment” in the functioning of any of the complainant’s organs … . People v Clark, 2020 NY Slip Op 07911, Second Dept 12-23-20