COURT OF APPEALS

CLICK TO READ People v. Arthur W. Ellis, Jr., Docket # 54

Court of Appeals held that a Facebook account is not an “internet identifier” pursuant to Correction Law § 168-f (4) that requires sex offenders to register with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.  a Facebook account is not an “internet identifier” that defendant must disclose to DCJS because neither Facebook nor the account is an email address or a “designation[] used for the purposes of chat, instant messaging, social networking or other similar internet communication” (Correction Law § 168-a [18]). By contrast, the “internet identifier” an offender uses to access the Facebook account must be disclosed to DCJS, and here, defendant disclosed the email address that he uses to access his Facebook account.  The dismissal of the indictment was proper.

CLICK TO READ People v. Derrick Ulett, Docket # 55

Conviction for murder reversed, new trial ordered.  Years after the verdict—pursuant to a Freedom of Information Law request—that the District Attorney’s Office sent defense counsel a copy.  The video supported the defense theory that a third party was the actual shooter.  At trial, the District Attorney argued that there was no video, when it had seen and possessed the video prior to trial.  The Court of Appeals held that the People violated their constitutional obligation to disclose a surveillance video that captured the scene at the time of the shooting, including images of the victim and a key prosecution witness. Failure to produce this video raises a reasonable probability that its disclosure would have produced a different result at trial.

THIS IS TOTALLY AT ODDS WITH THE JOHN GIUCA DECISION!!!!!

FIRST DEPARTMENT

CLICK TO READ People v. Justin Cook, Indictment # 4230-2013 (2019 NY Slip Op 05210)

Conviction for Robbery in the First Degree, Burglary in the First Degree reversed, new trial ordered.  Error for trial court to deny Defendant’s motion to receive testimony that one of the robbery victims, who was unavailable to testify at trial, failed to identify Defendant at a lineup.

SECOND DEPARTMENT

CLICK TO READ People v. Douglas Powell, Docket # 2017-10341

Order designating Defendant Level 2 Sex Offender reversed, reversed and remanded to reconsider downward departure motion

CLICK TO READ People v. Juan Miguel Lopez, Docket # 2016-13060

Case remanded for new determination of Defendant’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea, Defendant’s right to counsel was adversely affected when his attorney took a position adverse to him with respect to his application, in effect, to withdraw his plea of guilty at sentencing.

CLICK TO READ People v. Len Morris, Docket # 2016-04128

Conviction for Burglary in the Second Degree and Criminal Mischief in the Second Degree reversed, new trial ordered.   After another neighbor reported a break-in of a residence, the Defendant approached the responding police officer and told her that he had broken the door and searched the home because he heard a woman yelling inside and he was trying to aid her. No one was inside the home when he entered.  The officer asked the Defendant if he frequently heard things that others did not hear. The defendant said that he sometimes did. The officer believed that the Defendant was suffering from auditory hallucinations and called an ambulance to bring him to the hospital. The defendant was hospitalized for five days for “extreme paranoid behaviors.”  Upon the People’s motion, the court precluded the defense from introducing psychiatric evidence due to his failure to provide notice pursuant to CPL § 250.10.

The Second Department reversed, finding that the trial court abused its discretion in precluding a psychiatric defense.  The preclusion of testimony regarding those portions of the defendant’s conversation with the responding officer which involved his past auditory hallucinations, and his resultant hospitalization, deprived the jury of the full context of the interaction.

THIRD DEPARTMENT

CLICK TO READ People v. Cordell F. Palmer, Docket # 108695

Plea to Attempted Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree vacated, the Public Defender had a conflict of interest because it had represented the Confidential Informant at the same time as Defendant.  The court failed to conduct any further inquiry or obtain a waiver of the conflict from the Defendant, resulting in ineffective assistance of counsel

CLICK TO READ People v. Edward J. Jones, Docket # 110133

Guilty plea to Rape in the Second Degree vacated, Superior Court Information was jurisdictionally defective because it failed to set forth the time of the alleged incident

CLICK TO READ People v. Lennox Skyers, Docket # 109609

Guilty plea to Assault in the First Degree reversed, Defendant pled guilty while maintaining the assault was an accident, and stated at sentencing that he had overdosed on medications and had blacked out and was not in his right state of mind.  The statements made by defendant at sentencing, which raised the possibility of an intoxication defense and called into question the intent element of assault in the first degree (see Penal Law § 120.10 [1]), were sufficient to trigger the narrow exception to the preservation requirement, thereby imposing a duty of further inquiry upon County Court “to ensure that defendant’s guilty plea was knowing and voluntary.”

FOURTH DEPARTMENT

CLICK TO READ People v. Ali Bloodworth, Docket # 15-01819

Guilty plea to Robbery in the First Degree and Grand Larceny in the Third Degree vacated and reversed.  Defendant denied effective assistance of counsel because counsel failed to properly assert a meritorious speedy trial claim in a motion to dismiss by miscalculating CPL § 30.30 time.

CLICK TO READ People v. Steven Morris, Docket # 18-00335

People’s appeal of order suppressing statements, order reversed, statements made by Defendant to mother of child during a controlled call should not have been suppressed because the mother did not make a threat or promise that would create a risk that Defendant would falsely incriminate himself.