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WHEN DEFENDANT BECAME DISRUPTIVE JUST BEFORE THE PROSPECTIVE JURORS WERE BROUGHT IN THE JUDGE HAD HIM REMOVED FROM THE COURTROOM WITHOUT FIRST WARNING HIM AS REQUIRED BY STATUTE; NEW TRIAL ORDERED (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, reversing defendant’s conviction, determined the failure to warn defendant before removing him from the courtroom during jury selection required a new trial:

On the morning that jury selection was scheduled to begin, but before the prospective jurors had been brought into the courtroom, defendant began shouting, insisting that the court was calling him by the wrong name and that he could not wear the clothes provided to him. The court immediately had defendant removed from the courtroom, stating that it deemed defendant to have waived his right to be present based on his “outburst and behavior.” After defendant had been removed, the court stated that defendant’s “voice was raised to a level of almost deafening proportions, and it was very clear that it was imminent he was going to turn violent.” Defendant was absent for the selection of the first 11 jurors, but returned to the courtroom at the next recess and did not cause any further disruption.

A defendant has a fundamental right to be present at all material stages of trial, and that right is “violated by his or her absence during the questioning of prospective jurors during the impaneling of the jury” … . However, “[a] defendant’s right to be present during trial is not absolute” … . CPL 260.20 provides, in relevant part, “that a defendant who conducts himself in so disorderly and disruptive a manner that his trial cannot be carried on with him in the courtroom may be removed from the courtroom if, after he has been warned by the court that he will be removed if he continues such conduct, he continues to engage in such conduct” … . People v Brown, 2021 NY Slip Op 01668, Fourth Dept 3-19-21

 

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