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Discharge of Defense Attorney Was Abuse of Discretion; Issue Survives Guilty Plea 

The appellate division determined the trial court had abused its discretion in discharging defendant’s attorney and that the issue had not been forfeited by defendant’s guilty plea.  In affirming the appellate division, the Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Rivera, wrote:

Here, the claim to counsel is so deeply intertwined with the integrity of the process in Supreme Court that defendant’s guilty plea is no bar to appellate review. A claim that removal of counsel was part of the court’s disparate, unjustifiable treatment of defense counsel goes to the fundamental fairness of our system of justice. While the right to counsel of choice is qualified, and may cede, under certain circumstances, to concerns of the efficient administration of the criminal justice system, we have made clear that courts cannot arbitrarily interfere with the attorney-client relationship, and interference with that relationship for purpose of case management is not without limits, and is subject to scrutiny.  People v Griffin, 46. CtApp, 4-2-13

 

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Defendant’s Understanding Guilty Plea Would Result In Only a Year and a Half More in Prison Required Vacation of Plea

At the time defendant pled guilty to conspiracy, his 6-12 year sentence was to run concurrently with previously imposed 41/2 to 9 sentences (for class B felonies) and his understanding was that his minimum time in prison would be extended by only a year and a half.  Subsequently the B-felony convictions were reduced to three years under the Drug Law Reform Act.  The defendant then moved to vacate the conspiracy sentence and conviction but the motion was denied.  The Court of Appeals reversed and wrote:

Defendant’s plea to the conspiracy count was induced by the judge’s specific representation to him that he would thereby extend his minimum incarceratory term by a year and a half only. It simply cannot be said on this record that defendant, who was clearly working toward achieving the earliest release date possible, would have pleaded guilty absent this assurance. Generally, “when a guilty plea has been induced by an unfulfilled promise either the plea must be vacated or the promise honored, but that the choice rests in the discretion of the sentencing court” … .  People v Monroe, 41, CtApp 4-2-13

 

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Signing Checks Pursuant to a Power of Attorney Cannot Amount to Forgery 

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Read, affirmed the appellate division’s reversal of 40 “criminal possession of a forged instrument” convictions that were based upon the defendant’s [Ippolito’s]  signing checks using only the principal’s name without indicating he was signing pursuant to a power of attorney [POA]:

Here, the POA (until revoked) vested Ippolito with unlimited power to sign Katherine M. L.’s name on written instruments. As a result, the checks cannot have been forgeries … .[“[A] person does not ‘falsely make’ an instrument when he is authorized to execute it”]). Put another way, where the ostensible maker or drawer of a written instrument is a real person, a signature is not forged unless unauthorized (see Penal Law § 170.00 [4]). Since Ippolito was empowered to sign Katherine M. L.’s name at the times when he drew or endorsed the 40 checks at issue on this appeal, the People’s proof was legally insufficient to convict him of [criminal possession of a forged instrument]. People v Ippolito, 32, CtApp, 4-2-13

 

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District Attorney’s Prosecution of a Case in Which the Complainant Was a Sitting Judge Created the Appearance of Impropriety—A Special Prosecutor Should Have Handled the Case

A sitting City Court judge was the complainant in a harassment case.  A judge and a defense attorney from another county were appointed to handle the case.  The defense attorney made a motion to have a special prosecutor appointed as well because of the relationship between the District Attorney’s Office and the complainant.  That request was denied and the denial was affirmed on appeal to County Court.  The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Pigott, reversed, finding the District Attorney’s Office’s involvement in the case created the appearance of impropriety:

Here, while we do not find that any actual impropriety occurred, there is an unacceptably great appearance of impropriety – the appearance that the District Attorney’s Office refused to accept a reduced charge because the complainant was a sitting judge who demanded that the matter go to trial, rather than because a trial was, in its own disinterested judgment, appropriate. The complainant was a City Court Judge who had the authority to preside over cases involving this District Attorney’s office, and the criminal charges were unrelated to her official position, so that her status as a judge should not have been a factor in the resolution of the case. Nor was there anything unique or unusual about the charges, since they involved communications between two people who had formerly been in an intimate relationship – a scenario frequently seen in harassment cases. However, despite protracted and repeated plea negotiations, the District Attorney’s office did not offer defendant a reduced charge or agree to a plea that included a favorable sentence, such as an ACD, community service, or the like. While this alone would not be enough to raise an appearance of impropriety, there are other aspects of the record that do. Defendant’s original counsel from the Public Defender’s office, who had represented defendants in cases involving this District Attorney’s office for more than a decade, averred that he had never before seen the office take such a hard-line position in a case involving comparable charges and a similar defendant. Although provided ample opportunity to respond, the District Attorney’s office replied with nothing more than conclusory denials, failing to rebut the allegations with even a single example of a comparable case it had similarly refused to resolve with an ACD or a plea to a violation. Because the District Attorney’s office failed to take steps to dispel the appearance of inappropriate disparate treatment, we conclude that this is one of those rare cases in which a significant appearance of impropriety was created, requiring disqualification.  People v Adams, 47, CtApp 3-28-13

 

 

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Five-Day Time-Limit On Motion to Dismiss Based Upon Erroneous Information Provided by Prosecutor to Defendant Which Caused Defendant to Refrain from Testifying Before the Grand Jury

The Third Department, in a decision by Justice Peters, reversed County Court’s dismissal of an indictment based on the prosecutor’s (erroneously) telling the defendant he would be subject to cross-examination about a pending charge if he chose to testify before the grand jury.  There is a five-day time limitation for a motion to dismiss on that ground.  Defendant’s motion was deemed untimely:

We agree with the People that County Court erred in dismissing the indictment on the ground that defendant was deprived of his statutory right to testify before the grand jury. County  Court ruled that the prosecutor’s misstatement of law with respect to the questioning of defendant about  the unrelated pending  charge  for purposes  of  impeaching  his credibility caused defendant to withdraw  his request to testify before the grand jury, thereby  effectively depriving him  of  his right to testify under CPL 190.50 (5). Any alleged violation of that right, however, must be raised by  a motion to dismiss the indictment, pursuant to either CPL 170.50 or 210.20, no later than five days after arraignment on the indictment or such challenge will be deemed waived … .  People v Sutherland, 105155, 3rd Dept 3-28-13

 

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Failure to Verify Weight of Cocaine May Constitute Ineffective Assistance

In a decision by Justice Lahtinen, the Third Department determined the defendant had raised a question whether he was afforded ineffective assistance of counsel because counsel did not independently verify the weight of the cocaine he was charged with possessing.  The matter was sent back to the motion court for a hearing on defendant’s CPL 440 motion to vacate his conviction.  The Third Department wrote:

While failing to independently verify the weight of drugs does not necessarily  constitute  ineffective assistance …, this record contains sufficient factual issues as to whether  defendant  was  affirmatively given incorrect information by his counsel on an issue assertedly important in his decision to accept the plea and, as such, a hearing is required on his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel … People v Johnson, 103457, 3rd Dept 3-28-13

 

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Failure to Apply the Merger Doctrine In a Kidnapping Case is not a “Mode of Proceedings” Error—Failure to Object at Trial Precludes Review

n a full-fledged opinion by Judge Graffeo, the Court of Appeals determined that the failure to apply the merger doctrine, where kidnapping is deemed to merge with another substantive crime, is not a “mode of proceedings” error, and therefore is not reviewable in the Court of Appeals absent an objection at trial.  The merger doctrine was created to remedy overcharging by the prosecution where kidnapping was really part of another, less serious, offense.  Here the defendant argued the kidnapping charge, which was based on his briefly restraining a woman while threatening to shoot her, merged with the related reckless endangerment charge.  Because the alleged error was not preserved in the trial court by an objection, the issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the error should be deemed a “mode of proceedings” error which would allow the Court to hear the appeal, despite the lack of preservation.  The Court wrote:

In light of our case law on preservation, all four Appellate Divisions have concluded that a merger claim must be raised in the trial court … …. Defendant has offered no compelling justification for deviating from this established view and we see no valid reason to do so. Consequently, because the preservation rule applies to a merger claim in a kidnapping prosecution, defendant’s failure to assert the claim in Supreme Court precludes review by our Court … . People v Hanley, 45, CtApp 3-28-13

 

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Destruction of Video that May Have Been Relevant to the Defense Required Adverse Inference Charge

The defendant was charged with (and convicted of) assaulting jail deputies.  A video which may have captured at least some of the incidents was destroyed by “recording over” after 30 days, a jail policy. A request for any relevant electronic surveillance was made in the omnibus motion.  The indictment included incidents in November, 2006, and January, 2007. By the time the omnibus motion was made, only the video of the January incident was still available (pursuant to the 30-day “record over” policy).  The trial court agreed to give an adverse inference charge with respect to the January incident, but refused to give the adverse inference charge for the November incident.  The appellate division determined the adverse inference charge needn’t have been given because there was no evidence the video evidence would have been exculpatory.  In a full-fledged opinion by Judge Smith, the Court of Appeals reversed, finding the law of evidence required that the adverse inference charge be given:

We resolve this case, following the approach taken by the Maryland Court of Appeals in Cost v State (417 Md 360, 10 A3d 184 [2010]) by holding that, under the New York law of evidence, a permissive adverse inference charge should be given where a defendant, using reasonable diligence, has requested evidence reasonably likely to be material, and where that evidence has been destroyed by agents of the State.  People v Handy, 35, CtApp 3-28-13

 

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Representation of Co-defendants by Attorneys In Same Firm Constituted Ineffective Assistance

Defendant brought a motion pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law Article 440 to vacate his conviction on the ground that he was deprived of effective assistance of counsel.  Defendant’s attorney was “of counsel” to the law firm of the attorney who represented a co-defendant.  The co-defendant agreed to testify against the defendant in return for a lesser sentence.  Ultimately the defendant pled guilty.  In reversing the judgment of conviction, the Third Department, in a decision by Justice Stein, wrote:

When a single attorney or multiple attorneys associated with the same firm simultaneously represent clients in a criminal matter, “if the clients’ interests actually conflict, and if the defendant has not waived the conflict, the defendant is deprived of the effective assistance of counsel”… People v Lynch, 104852, 104945, 3rd Dept 3-26-13

 

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Search of Camera in Possession of the Police for Illegal Images Was Valid Even though Underlying Warrant Was Issued In a Case Closed Before the Search

In a search, the defendant’s computer and camera were seized.  Based on a picture found on the computer, the defendant pled guilty to possessing a sexual performance of a child.  After his sentence was served and after the time to appeal had elapsed defendant’s attorney contacted the prosecutor and asked for defendant’s seized camera to be returned. At that time the camera was analyzed for the first time and images found on the camera were the basis for the predatory sexual assault conviction that was before the Court of Appeals. The defendant moved to suppress the images found on the camera arguing that at the time the images were found the authority provided by the warrant under which the camera was seized had lapsed, making the search of the camera illegal.  In a full-fledged opinion by Judge Lippman, the Court of Appeals determined that the defendant had no expectation of privacy in the contents of the seized camera, and, therefore, the search of the camera did not violate the Fourth Amendment.  Judge Lippman noted that “it would not be compatible with due process for the state to retain property under color of a search warrant beyond the exhaustion of any law enforcement purpose adequate to justify the withholding…”.  Here, the Court determined, a legitimate law enforcement purpose existed at the time the analysis of the camera was done.  The camera could not be returned until it was determined no illegal images were contained in it. People v DeProspero, 44, CtApp 3-26-13

SEARCH AND SEIZURE, SUPPRESS, SUPPRESSION

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