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THE ACCUSATORY INSTRUMENT CHARGING THE DEFENDANT WITH “FRAUDULENT ACCOSTING” WAS FACIALLY SUFFICIENT; IT WAS ENOUGH TO ALLEGE THAT DEFENDANT SPOKE FIRST TO PERSONS PASSING AROUND HIM ON THE SIDEWALK ASKING FOR DONATIONS FOR THE HOMELESS; THERE WAS NO NEED TO ALLEGE DEFENDANT WAS AGGRESSIVE OR PERSISTENT OR TARGETED AN INDIVIDUAL (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Garcia, over an extensive three-judge dissent, determined the accusatory instrument charging defendant with “fraudulent accosting” was facially sufficient. Defendant set up a couple of milk crates as a table in the sidewalk and asked people for donations to the homeless as they walked around the table. Defendant unsuccessfully argued the term “accost” required an element of aggressiveness or persistence directed toward an individual:

A person is guilty of fraudulent accosting when he or she “accosts a person in a public space with intent to defraud him of money or other property by means of a trick, swindle or confidence game” (Penal Law § 165.30 [1]). * * *

During the relevant period in 1952, when the legislature created the offense of fraudulent accosting … contemporary dictionaries defined “accost” to mean either to “approach,” to “speak to first,” or to “address” … .No dictionary cited from the relevant time period limits the term to an aggressive or persistent physical approach … . People v Mitchell, 2022 NY Slip Op 03360, Ct App 5-24-22

Practice Point: Here, to determine the meaning of the word “accost” as used in the “fraudulent accosting” statute, the Court of Appeals referred only to definitions of the word in dictionaries extant in 1952, when the statute was enacted. and ignored more recent definitions.

 

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