People v. Feinberg

19 Misc. 2d 433, 193 N.Y.S.2d 937, 1959 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2439
CourtNew York Court of General Session of the Peace
DecidedDecember 10, 1959
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 19 Misc. 2d 433 (People v. Feinberg) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of General Session of the Peace primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Feinberg, 19 Misc. 2d 433, 193 N.Y.S.2d 937, 1959 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2439 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1959).

Opinion

Abraham N. Geller, J.

Defendant stands accused in a 21-count indictment of the crimes of perjury and contempt. Although he testified under a grant of immunity, he now moves to dismiss the indictment on the ground that the Fourth Grand Jury for the November 1957 Term Continued violated his rights under section 6 of article I of the New York State Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution when it subpoenaed him and administered the oath to him, since he was a potential defendant or a target of its investigation.

Defendant, in response to a subpoena, testified before the Grand Jury on 12 separate occasions beginning on November 13, 1958. On that date he was sworn, and, before any questions were put to him, he was advised by the Assistant District Attorney that the Grand Jury was then investigating “ whether there has existed in the past a conspiracy of a criminal nature [434]*434between officials of the Building Department and others to commit the crimes of bribery and taking of unlawful fees.”

The Assistant District Attorney thereupon warned him that he could be a defendant in criminal proceedings resulting from the investigation, carefully advised and instructed him on his right to exercise his constitutional privilege against self incrimination, and stated that if the defendant did exercise that privilege, he would be given immunity from prosecution for any crime that may be disclosed by his testimony, except perjury and contempt.

Following these preliminary remarks by the Assistant District Attorney, the defendant answered a number of questions, some of them dealing with his relations with certain employees of the Department of Buildings. The defendant then invoked his privilege, was granted immunity (except for perjury and contempt) by the Grand Jury, at the request of the Assistant District Attorney and in conformity with the statute (Penal Law, §§ 584, 2447), and continued testifying. The crimes of perjury and contempt with which defendant is charged in this indictment arise from testimony given by him before the Grand Jury and are alleged to have been committed on dates subsequent to the grant of immunity on November 13, 1958.

According to defendant’s testimony before the Grand Jury, he was then the sole officer and manager of Property Owners Service Corporation, Inc., which was an organization of landlords whose purpose, inter alia, was to assist its members with problems with official agencies such as the Department of Buildings. As such, he was implicated in the transactions being investigated by the Grand Jury and, but for the grant of immunity, could have been characterized as a potential defendant.

Despite the fact that he was granted full immunity by the Grand Jury, defendant now vigorously contends that the indictment must be dismissed because, since he was a potential defendant or a target of the investigation, the Grand Jury was powerless to compel his attendance before it and to administer the oath to him. He relies for this proposition principally on People v. Gillette (126 App. Div. 665); People v. De Feo (308 N. Y. 595) and People v. Steuding (6 N Y 2d 214). The court, after careful consideration of these and other applicable decisions, finds that they do not support defendant’s contention.

The New York State Constitution provides that no person shall£ £ be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself ” (art. I, § 6). A Grand Jury investigation is a criminal [435]*435proceeding within the purview of this provision. (People ex rel. Taylor v. Forbes, 143 N. Y. 219.) Consequently, in the absence of an immunity statute, it is a violation of the constitutional provision to subpoena a potential defendant or a target of the Grand Jury’s investigation (as distinguished from an ordinary witness) and to administer the oath to him. The legal consequence flowing from such violation is dismissal of the indictment found by that Grand Jury for any substantive crime disclosed by that person’s testimony as well as for perjury and criminal contempt. As the court said in People v. Gillette (126 App. Div. 665, 668, supra): “ It was a violation of his constitutional right to require him to attend before the grand jury and take an oath. When he took the oath he thereupon became a witness and the constitutional provision is that he could not ‘ be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.’ An indictment obtained against him in that way would be invalid and he could not be convicted of perjury for the testimony which he gave, inasmuch as the oath could not be legally administered to him.” However, he does not gain immunity from prosecution for the substantive crimes, because these could be resubmitted to another Grand Jury before which he is not subpoenaed and examined. (People v. Freistadt, 6 A D 2d 1053; People ex rel. Coyle v. Truesdell, 259 App. Div. 282; People v. Bermel, 71 Misc. 356; but, cf. 11 People v. Steuding, 6 N Y 2d 214, supra, where this question was expressly left open.)

Two years after the Gillette decision (supra), the Legislature adopted an immunity statute covering the crime of conspiracy (L. 1910, ch. 395; Penal Law, § 584). That statute (§ 584) gave broad immunity from prosecution ‘1 for or on account of any transaction, matter or thing* concerning which he may so testify or produce evidence”. (See, also, Penal Law, §§ 381, 996.) Statutory immunity, as already indicated, gave a witness broader freedom from prosecution than did the constitutional protection enunciated in the Gillette case (supra), for the incriminating matters disclosed by the immunized witness could not be resubmitted to another Grand Jury or otherwise received against him upon any criminal prosecution.

Section 584 gave a witness what has been characterized as “ automatic immunity ” if he gave self-incriminating testimony. (People v. De Feo, 308 N. Y. 595, 602, supra.) In receiving automatic immunity, the witness was not required to plead his privilege nor was the Grand Jury required, verbally or otherwise, to “ confer ” immunity in order for the witness to obtain [436]*436it. He received it for any self-incriminating testimony by the mere giving of such testimony. "Where an immunity statute was in effect, a potential defendant or a target of investigation could not refuse to testify because of privilege and accordingly there was 11 no longer a distinction between the status of a witness about to be accused and one called as an incident to a general investigation.” (People ex rel. Coyle v. Truesdell, supra, p. 284; People v. Reiss, 255 App. Div. 509, affd. 280 N. Y. 539.) Of course, where an immunity statute was not in effect, a target still had the protection of the afore-mentioned rule in the Gillette case (supra).

In 1953 the Legislature, upon the recommendation of the New York State Crime Commission, enacted the present section 2447 (L. 1953, ch. 891, § 1) which established a new procedural scheme for the granting of immunity. The purpose and effect of this provision is to eliminate automatic and sometimes unjustified “ immunity baths,” so-called, which accrued to persons summoned before investigative bodies.

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Bluebook (online)
19 Misc. 2d 433, 193 N.Y.S.2d 937, 1959 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2439, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-feinberg-nygensess-1959.