People v. Grant

260 A.D.2d 860, 690 N.Y.S.2d 139, 1999 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4229
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided April 22, 1999·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

Mikoll, J. P.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Sheridan, J.), rendered August 31, 1994 in Schenectady County, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.

This matter was previously before us (see, 241 AD2d 562, revd 91 NY2d 989). Defendant had been interrogated by the Schenectady City Police regarding a homicide and assault that occurred in the City of Schenectady, Schenectady County, on May 9, 1993 which resulted in statements by defendant regarding the crimes. During the interrogation, the police knew that defendant was represented on a pending charge of criminal possession of a weapon in New York City but nevertheless elicited some information regarding this charge. We held that defendant’s failure to properly raise the issue of the impermissibility of the questioning about the New York City matter at the trial level waived the argument on appeal (241 AD2d 562, 563-564, supra). The Court of Appeals reversed (91 NY2d 989) and remitted the matter to the trial court to consider the issue and apply the law as articulated by it in People v Cohen (90 NY2d 632) to the facts and inferences presented by the existing record. The trial court, on remittal, concluded that there was no violation of defendant’s right to counsel on the basis urged and denied the suppression of defendant’s statements.

We are now called upon to review the question of whether questioning by Schenectady police about the Brooklyn charge for possession of a weapon, for which defendant was represented by counsel, was discrete or fairly separable from the Schenectady charges or was purposely exploitive and designed to add pressure on defendant to confess, thus triggering entitlement to suppression under the Cohen standard.

We affirm. It is settled law that once a defendant’s indelible right to counsel attaches, the police may not interrogate the defendant on a charge for which he or she is represented although, if the defendant is not in custody on the charge upon which the right of counsel has indelibly attached, the defendant may waive his or her rights and be questioned on a charge [861]*861for which he or she is not represented (see, People v Bing, 76 NY2d 331, 340). In People v Cohen (supra), the Court of Appeals additionally noted that a defendant is further protected against being questioned by police on a charge as to which he or she is unrepresented in two situations, only the second of which is relevant here.

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People v. Grant, 260 A.D.2d 860, 690 N.Y.S.2d 139, 1999 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4229 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1999).

260 A.D.2d 860 (People v. Grant) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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