People v. Coleman

12 Misc. 3d 712
New York Supreme Court·Decided April 20, 2006·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

[713]*713OPINION OF THE COURT

Caesar Cirigliano, J.

Defendants, Curtis Coleman and Dwight Thomas, have moved to preclude the photo array and in-court identification of proposed People’s witness known as “White Boy” pursuant to CPL 710.30, 240.60 and 240.70.

The basic facts are undisputed. On August 17, 2004, a Bronx County grand jury returned an indictment charging defendants with one count of murder in the second degree, one count of manslaughter in the first degree, one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree arising from the shooting death of Marvin Barrett on June 9, 2004. The defendants were arraigned on September 7 and 20 of 2004, respectively, and CPL 710.30 notice was promptly served for Mr. Clifford Folkes, one of the eyewitnesses to the crime. Motions were filed and Justice Troy Webber ordered Huntley/Dunaway, Wade and Mapp hearings. At the conclusion of said hearings, on March 6, 2006, the People for the first time apprised the court and defense of the existence of an additional eyewitness known as “White Boy.” The People indicated that on August 27, 2005, almost one year after defendants’ arrest and arraignment, a photo array procedure was conducted and “White Boy” made a positive identification of the defendants and also provided a written statement. Defense immediately moved to preclude the introduction of this testimony pursuant to CPL 710.30 or in the alternative prohibiting the introduction of the subject evidence pursuant to CPL 240.60 and 240.70. (People v Kirkland, 89 NY2d 903 [1996].)

The issues before the court are: (1) whether a postarraignment procedure falls within the purview of CPL 710.30; and (2) whether the People have an ongoing obligation to notify the defense of any identification procedure conducted after the 15-day statutory notice period has elapsed.

Although both sides submitted legal briefs and verbal arguments, they have not provided the court with any authoritative precedent, nor has the court found any cases directly on point.

The defense argues that a postarraignment procedure falls within the purview of CPL 710.30 and People’s failure to reveal the existence of a second identification procedure and witness in a timely manner violates the legislative intent of CPL 710.30, as well as People’s continuing obligation to give notice under sec[714]*714tions 710.30 and 240.60. The People’s primary argument is that since the procedure took place almost a year after the defendants were arrested and arraigned, the 15-day rule as stated in CPL 710.30 and its preclusion rule do not apply.

The relevant parts of CPL 710.30 state that:

“1. Whenever the people intend to offer at a trial ...(b) testimony regarding an observation of the defendant either at the time or place of the commission of the offense or upon some other occasion relevant to the case, to be given by a witness who has previously identified him as such, they must serve upon the defendant a notice of such intention, specifying the evidence intended to be offered.
“2. Such notice must be served within fifteen days after arraignment and before trial, and upon such service the defendant must be accorded reasonable opportunity to move before trial, pursuant to subdivision one of section 710.40, to suppress the specified evidence. For good cause shown, however, the court may permit the people to serve such notice, thereafter and in such case it must accord the defendant reasonable opportunity thereafter to make a suppression motion.
“3. In the absence of service of notice upon a defendant as prescribed in this section, no evidence of a kind specified in subdivision one may be received against him upon trial unless he has, despite the lack of such notice, moved to suppress such evidence and such motion has been denied and the evidence thereby rendered admissible as prescribed in subdivision two of section 710.70.”

“Historically, CPL 710.30 ‘was ... a legislative response to the problem of suggestive and misleading pretrial identification procedures treated by the Supreme Court in Gilbert v California (388 US 263), United States v Wade (388 US 218) and Stovall v Denno (388 US 293)’ (People v Gissendanner, 48 NY2d 543, 552). In each of those cases, the court was concerned with trial identifications predicated on earlier confrontations . . . involving lineups, showups or photographs for the purpose of establishing the identity of the criminal actor.” (People v White, 73 NY2d 468, 474 [1989], cert denied 493 US 859 [1989].)

CPL 710.30 “sets forth a procedure to provide notice to a defendant who might otherwise be unaware that the People are in possession of such evidence and thus allows the defendant to [715]*715test the reliability of the identification before trial.” (See People v White, supra at 474.) To this end, the statute’s plain language supplies a specific guideline for the People to adhere to which is to give notice within “fifteen days after arraignment and before trial.” (CPL 710.30 [2].) The statute even allows for circumstances where there is lateness of the required notice since it gives the People an opportunity to request the courts to allow for service of a late notice upon “good cause shown” (CPL 710.30 [2].)

The courts have carved out four exceptions to the applicability of CPL 710.30, that is, where the people are not required to give notice of evidence they intend to use at trial. These are: (1) where the witness previously knew the defendant and the confrontation is merely confirmatory (People v Tas, 51 NY2d 915 [1980] [victim was familiar with the defendants, though he did not know their name; identification was admissible without notice because there was no prior “identification” within the meaning of the statute]); (2) where the evidence is not the result of police-arranged procedure (People v Semidey, 254 AD2d 57 [1998] [where notice was not required when the statement is made as part of a criminal transaction]); (3) judicially supervised identifications such as identifications made at pretrial suppression hearings (People v White, supra); and (4) where the defendant has made a motion to suppress and the court after holding a hearing on the matter denies it (People v Kirkland, 89 NY2d 903 [1996] [where defendant moved to preclude but then moved to suppress in effect waiving preclusion]).

In the instant case, the identification procedure by “White Boy” took place almost one year after defendants’ arraignment, the court is in agreement that the People could not at this point comply with the 15-day period mandated by the plain language of CPL 710.30. However, courts have avoided an interpretation of CPL 710.30 that places “too much emphasis on the statute’s literal language when doing so would produce results plainly at odds with the policy of the legislation as a whole.” (People v White at 474 n 1.) Therefore, “a controlling principle in interpreting statutes is the legislative intent.” (Id. at 473.)

In People v O’Doherty

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People v. Coleman, 12 Misc. 3d 712 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2006).

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