People v. Padin

121 A.D.3d 628, 994 N.Y.S.2d 309

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: October 30, 2014
• Docket: 13380 1289/09 1385/10
• Status: Published

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Cassandra M. Mullen, J.), rendered October 5, 2010, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal contempt in the first degree, tampering with a witness in the fourth degree and assault in the third degree, and sentencing him to an aggregate term of two to four years, unanimously affirmed.

We reject defendant’s challenges to the sufficiency and weight of the evidence supporting the contempt conviction (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). The record supports reasonable inferences that defendant intended to harass, annoy, threaten, or alarm the victim when he made hundreds of calls to her in violation of an order of protection, and that he lacked any legitimate purpose for doing so (see Penal Law § 215.51 [b] [iv]).

To the extent that a portion of the prosecutor’s summation could be viewed as containing a misstatement of law, it did not deprive defendant of a fair trial, and any prejudice was avoided by the court’s instructions, which the jury is presumed to have followed (see People v Moreno, 100 AD3d 435, 437 [1st Dept 2012], lv denied 20 NY3d 987 [2012]).

Concur — Tom, J.E, Sweeny, Andrias, Moskowitz and Gische, JJ.