People v. Betancourt

217 A.D.2d 462, 629 N.Y.S.2d 423, 1995 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7757
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided July 13, 1995·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Joseph Fisch, J., at trial and sentence; Lawrence Tonetti, J., on the speedy trial motion), rendered March 5, 1993, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of two counts of robbery in the first degree and one count of attempted robbery in the first degree and sentencing him to concurrent indeterminate terms of imprisonment of from four to twelve years, four to twelve years and two to six years, respectively, unanimously reversed, on the law, defendant’s speedy trial motion granted and the indictment dismissed. The matter is remitted to the trial court for the purpose of entering an order in favor of the accused pursuant to CPL 160.50, not less than 30 days after service of this order upon the respondent, with leave during this 30 day period to respondent to move and seek any further stay of the implementation of CPL 160.50 as in the interest of justice is required.

A felony complaint accusing defendant of robbery was filed in this case on April 30, 1991; the People were required to be ready for trial 184 days later. (See, CPL 30.30 [1] [a]; People v Osgood, 52 NY2d 37, 43; People v Lomax, 50 NY2d 351, 356; see also, People v Luperon, 85 NY2d 71, 75.) When his trial had [463] not been commenced by November 1992, over 18 months later, defendant moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground he had been denied his right to a speedy trial. In their formal response, the People conceded only 65 includable days. The motion court denied the motion, without a hearing, finding that "the includable time for speedy trial purposes is less than 100 days.”

Although the People now argue that defendant’s original motion papers were deficient, they raised no such objection when they responded to the motion; nor did they claim that they could not adequately fashion a response. In fact, the People responded at length as to why the claimed periods of delay were excludable. In such circumstances, any claim that the moving papers failed adequately to provide specified factual allegations to require a response is waived. (See, People v Fields, 214 AD2d 332; People v Mezon, 80 NY2d 155, 160.) In any event, defendant was not required to refer specifically to every adjournment period in detailed fashion in order to sustain his burden. (People v Luperon, 85 NY2d 71, 77-78, supra.) A speedy trial motion need only include "sworn allegations that there has been unexcused delay in excess of the statutory maximum.” (People v Santos, 68 NY2d 859, 861.) The burden then shifts to the People "to show that specific periods * * * should be excluded” (supra, at 861). Defendant, through his attorney’s affirmation, met his burden by alleging his arrest on April 30, 1991, the People’s lack of readiness on 15 specified dates and their unreadiness for a period exceeding six months. Defendant did not merely list the adjournment dates, as the People argue. He identified the specific adjournment periods chargeable to the People due to their lack of readiness, while noting periods that were excludable because of consent or motion practice. This was more than sufficient to put the People, as their response obviously implicitly acknowledged, on notice of defendant’s speedy trial claims, as to which defendant never had a chance to reply. The court denied his motion, without a hearing, the next court day. Since, in our review of the record, we find more than six months of pre-trial delay attributable to the People, defendant’s speedy trial motion should have been granted and the indictment dismissed.

Defendant was arraigned on the felony complaint on May 1, 1991 and the matter adjourned to May 6, 1991 for defendant to testify before the Grand Jury. Thus, the six-day period between the April 30, 1991 filing of the felony complaint and the May 6, 1991 adjourned date is not chargeable to the People since the case was presented to the Grand Jury on May 1, 1991 [464] and adjourned to accommodate defendant’s request to testify. As the People conceded, the 29-day adjournment period between May 6, 1991 and June 4, 1991 is chargeable to them. A subsequent adjournment to June 27,1991 for the purpose of arraigning defendant, prompted by the absence of the indictment from the court file, is also chargeable to the People since there was nothing about this administrative delay that would "excuse the People from timely declaring their readiness for trial” (People v Smith, 82 NY2d 676, 678). Thus, this 23-day delay was chargeable to the People.

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People v. Betancourt, 217 A.D.2d 462, 629 N.Y.S.2d 423, 1995 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7757 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1995).

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