People v. Boukris

50 Misc. 3d 927, 25 N.Y.S.3d 554
CourtNew York County Courts
DecidedDecember 11, 2015
StatusPublished

This text of 50 Misc. 3d 927 (People v. Boukris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York County Courts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Boukris, 50 Misc. 3d 927, 25 N.Y.S.3d 554 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Frank J. LaBuda, J.

A Sullivan County grand jury returned indictment No. 63S-2015, on April 22, 2015, charging the defendant with three counts of predatory sexual assault against a child and one count of sexual abuse in the first degree for a onetime incident that allegedly occurred “during the spring of 2011” at the Laurel Ledge Estates development in the Town of Fallsburg, Sullivan County, New York. The charges stem from allegations that the defendant, a rabbinical student, a friend of the victim’s family, and a member of the same synagogue prayer group that met at the victim’s residence, met the then 11-year-old victim at a local1 grocery during daytime hours, took him by vehicle to a forested area, fondled his genitals while in the vehicle, and then removed him from the vehicle to a forested area in the neighborhood, at which time the young boy alleged that the defendant forced him to engage in oral sex and subjected him to anal sexual intercourse.

Prior to the commencement of a jury trial, in reliance on pretrial discovery and preparation, the defendant informed the court and the prosecution that he wished to proceed with a non-jury trial on the indictment, which at that time alleged the incident occurred “during the spring of 2011” at “Laurel Ledge Estates.” The trial commenced on November 12, 2015. At the close of the People’s case, on November 18, 2015, defendant moved for a trial order of dismissal pursuant to CPL 290.10, which this court denied. The defendant presented his case. Defendant testified and called other witnesses, and introduced a Facebook conversation that the young boy had with an adult male friend in Israel, and the defense then rested. The People called several rebuttal witnesses, moved to reopen its direct case and recall the victim, and introduced further evidence to rebut the defendant’s case. The evidentiary portion of the trial [929]*929came to a close on December 8, 2015. At that time, the defendant made another motion for a trial order of dismissal pursuant to CPL 290.10, on which this court reserved judgment and heard closing arguments.

After a complete review of the testimony and all the exhibits presented at trial, as well as a review of the necessary and required elements of each crime charged in the indictment, this court finds that the People failed to present legally sufficient evidence to support a conviction in this matter. (CPL 290.10; People v Ledwon, 153 NY 10 [1897]; People v Delamota, 18 NY3d 107 [2011].) This court’s decision is not based on the credibility of the witnesses, and is not a finding of guilt or innocence on the part of the defendant. This court’s determination is based solely on legal principles applicable to all criminal trials that require the People to meet a certain legal evidentiary threshold to prove each and every element of the crimes charged as a prima facie case.

This court finds the evidence presented by the People to be legally insufficient pursuant to CPL 290.10, which states in pertinent part:

“At the conclusion of the people’s case or at the conclusion of all the evidence, the court may . . . issue a trial order of dismissal, dismissing any count of an indictment upon the ground that the trial evidence is not legally sufficient to establish the offense charged therein or any lesser included offense . . . .” (CPL 290.10 [1] [a] [internal quotation marks omitted].)

CPL 290.10 applies to jury and non-jury trials, alike, and permits a trial order of dismissal only when the evidence presented at trial is insufficient as a matter of law. (See People v Sabella, 35 NY2d 158 [1974].) Legally sufficient evidence means “competent evidence which, if accepted as true, would establish every element of an offense charged and the defendant’s commissions thereof . . . .” (CPL 70.10 [1] [emphasis added].) If the prosecutor has established a prima facie case, the evidence is deemed legally sufficient (Sabella at 167) and the case proceeds to deliberation by the finder of fact.

In the instant matter, the People failed, as a matter of law, to present a prima facie case in that they were unable to present legally sufficient evidence to establish the date on which the alleged offense occurred. Predatory sexual assault against a child and sexual abuse in the first degree require that the [930]*930prosecutor prove among other elements the date and the place of the alleged incident. (Penal Law § 130.96; CJI2d[NY] Penal Law § 130.96; Penal Law § 130.65 [4]; CJI2d[NY] Penal Law § 130.65 [4].)

In the instant matter, the evidence at trial failed to establish a date on which the alleged incident occurred, as a matter of law. The original indictment, returned on April 22, 2015, charged the defendant with committing all of the charged crimes, which were culminated in a single incident “during the spring of 2011.” Pretrial motions and discovery, to which the defendant was entitled and received, did not specify or change the date nor the location of the alleged incident. The People, however, at trial presented evidence in the form of a Town of Fallsburg detective’s police report, dated December 5, 2014, indicating the incident occurred in 2009. The victim had testified before the grand jury that the alleged incident occurred in the spring of 2011, then testified at trial to other time periods: that it occurred in late February of 2011, two weeks before a visit with his physician in March 2011, and then on cross-examination further testified it occurred in July of 2011. The young man was very specific and adamant during his trial testimony about both times; he testified that the incident occurred approximately two weeks prior to a medical appointment he had with a local physician in March 2011, which put the time of occurrence in late February 2011. He later testified on cross-examination that he recalled that the incident occurred in July of 2011 because he remembered the Kletsky case (a case in New York City involving a boy in Brooklyn who was abducted and killed). Upon redirect, the young man could not clarify the date on which he believed the alleged incident occurred to him. Furthermore, the defense presented testimony from Rabbi Lift, a teacher with over 15 years of experience and one of the young man’s teachers at the Hebrew Day School, who testified that he noticed a radical and violent change in the victim’s behavior (it is generally accepted by psychologists and the prosecutor’s own expert, Eileen Treacy, Ph.D., that such behavioral changes manifest indicia of child sex abuse). Rabbi Litt’s observations were made in 2009, and were noted on the young man’s official school report card at that time. The 2009 report and observations coincide with the Fallsburg detective’s report indicating the incident occurred in 2009.

The People also presented expert testimony by Dr. Eileen Treacy, who testified to the Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation [931]*931Syndrome and that child victims of sexual assault are often able to remember dates by associating them with other, unrelated events of great magnitude as a “marker” in remembering time, which would coincide with the young man’s testimony that the alleged incident occurred in July of 2011, when the Kletsky case made the news and he was aware of it.2

Recognizing they had an issue with the time frame of the alleged incident, the People made an application at the close of their case to amend the date/time of the alleged incident in the indictment.

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Related

People v. Calabria
816 N.E.2d 1257 (New York Court of Appeals, 2004)
People v. . Ledwon
46 N.E. 1046 (New York Court of Appeals, 1897)
People v. Delamota
960 N.E.2d 383 (New York Court of Appeals, 2011)
People v. Sabella
316 N.E.2d 569 (New York Court of Appeals, 1974)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
50 Misc. 3d 927, 25 N.Y.S.3d 554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-boukris-nycountyct-2015.