People v. Pomerantz

63 A.D.2d 457, 407 N.Y.S.2d 723, 1978 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11365
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJuly 31, 1978
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 63 A.D.2d 457 (People v. Pomerantz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Pomerantz, 63 A.D.2d 457, 407 N.Y.S.2d 723, 1978 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11365 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Hawkins, J.

The defendant appeals from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County, rendered October 19, 1977, convicting him of three counts of perjury in the first degree and imposing sentence. The judgment should be reversed, on the law, and the indictment dismissed.

The defendant operates the Pomerantz Paper Company, a wholesale distributor of paper goods and household chemicals in Brooklyn, New York. He does most of his business with nursing homes and health-related facilities in the metropolitan area. The defendant has been convicted of perjury in that he lied to a Kings County Grand Jury which was investigating fraud in the nursing home industry in New York.

The events leading up to the defendant’s perjury conviction commenced in 1975. One Ira Feinberg had been convicted in Federal court on charges of securities fraud and conspiracy. The Federal prosecutor in that case was subsequently appointed as a prosecutor in the office of the Deputy Attorney-General (Special Prosecutor) investigating nursing home fraud. It was agreed that if Feinberg co-operated with New York State’s investigation into nursing home fraud, the Federal authorities would recommend that the Federal court reduce his interim sentence of 18 months.

Early in 1975, at the instruction of the office of the Special Prosecutor, Feinberg telephoned the defendant and asked him to come to his nursing home in Emerson, New Jersey, to discuss the purchase of supplies for the home. The meeting was set for July 15, 1975. Before the defendant arrived in New Jersey that day, Feinberg conferred with the New York authorities and a recording device was concealed on his person. The device was activated when the defendant arrived at the nursing home and it recorded their entire conversation.

After discussing the kinds of products that he would need, Feinberg began to question the defendant as to whether he could get a "special deal”. The defendant initially avoided the topic, but Feinberg returned to the question several times, indicating that he should be able to "make a few dollars” since he was not only the administrator of the home, but its [459]*459owner as well. Finally, the defendant suggested that he could add 10% to the bills which he submitted to the nursing home and give it back to Feinberg in cash. The conversation then ended.

In 1976 a Kings County Grand Jury was investigating corruption in New York’s nursing home industry. The inquiry focused on the extent to which suppliers of goods and services were giving kickbacks to nursing home operators or employees. On May 21, 1976, 10 months after his meeting with Feinberg, the defendant was called to testify before the Grand Jury. Before testifying, the defendant asked for and was granted immunity.

In the course of his testimony, the defendant denied knowledge of any special deals by which nursing home bills were inflated by 10% with the money being funneled back to the nursing home administrator. The defendant stated that he had never even discussed inflated bills or extra invoices with any nursing home administrators. The defendant further stated that he could not recall ever having engaged in a kickback arrangement and admitted that if he had done so, he would have remembered it. The defendant testified that he did not remember soliciting business from anyone named Ira Feinberg, either at the Manor Nursing Home in Emerson, New Jersey, or at the Manor Nursing Home in Tenafly, New Jersey, both of which are owned by Feinberg. However, the defendant did state that he did not remember everyone from whom he had solicited business and that it was possible that he had met Ira Feinberg. The defendant went on to state that he did not remember suggesting to Feinberg or any New Jersey nursing home operator that he could provide bills inflated by 10%. Finally, the defendant stated that he did not recall telling Mr. Feinberg that he would deliver kickback money in person.

At one point during the questioning the defendant asked to speak to his attorney. However, the Special Prosecutor indicated that he had only one further question. More than 20 questions were thereafter asked before the testimony was completed.

The defendant was then indicted on three counts of perjury. Count one charged that the defendant lied when he denied knowledge of nursing home kickbacks. Count two charged that the defendant lied when he denied that he had ever discussed kickbacks with nursing home administrators. Count three [460]*460charged that defendant lied when he denied that he had ever offered kickbacks to nursing home administrators. At the trial, the primary witness for the People was Ira Feinberg, who testified to his meeting with the defendant in New Jersey. While the prosecution presented two other witnesses against the defendant, their testimony was not conclusive. Thus, the only significant proof at the trial that the defendant knew about kickbacks, had discussed kickbacks and had offered kickbacks to nursing home personnel, centered around his meeting with Feinberg. The defendant was found guilty on all counts and was sentenced to serve concurrent terms of from zero to three years’ imprisonment on each count. The judgment of conviction should be reversed and the indictment dismissed.

The basic difficulty with the defendant’s perjury convictions stems from the fact that he was questioned before a New York Grand Jury about a transaction which occurred in New Jersey and which had no relevance to New York. Indeed, the fact that the perjury charges were based upon an out-of-State transaction was no accident; it was the Special Prosecutor who directed Feinberg to summon the defendant to New Jersey and instigate the kickback discussion. As will become evident, this contrived meeting, and the subsequent questioning of the defendant about it, served no legitimate law enforcement objective and was designed solely to obtain a perjury indictment. To that extent, this excess of prosecutorial zeal violated certain principles of fairness recently enunciated by this court and by the Court of Appeals. (See People v Tyler, 62 AD2d 136; People v Isaacson, 44 NY2d 511.)

In People v Tyler (supra), the defendant, a Justice of the Supreme Court, was accused of lying before a Grand Jury which was investigating his relationship to one Raymond Marquez. It appeared that the New York City Police Department had had Tyler under surveillance for a lengthy period of time. On May 16, 1975 the police followed him to a particular restaurant where he met Marquez for a period of shortly more than an hour.

Subsequently, Tyler was called before the Grand Jury and asked about his meeting with Marquez. In response to certain questions, Tyler gave answers that were not accurate. However, his answers were somewhat equivocal and the prosecutor failed to probe Tyler’s story during his direct examination, despite the fact that the prosecutor had massive amounts of [461]*461detail about the meeting with Marquez. Relying on this as one ground for reversal, this court commented (62 AD2d, at p 143): "The failure of the prosecutor to follow this time-tested stratagem of basic cross-examination procedures suggests, at least, that the prime purpose of the prosecutor who presented the case to the Grand Jury (and who is no longer in office) was not so much to pursue a legitimate line of inquiry but to indict the appellant for perjury. In Brown v United States

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Related

Pomerantz v. New York
471 F. Supp. 338 (E.D. New York, 1979)
People v. Pomerantz
67 A.D.2d 934 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
63 A.D.2d 457, 407 N.Y.S.2d 723, 1978 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11365, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-pomerantz-nyappdiv-1978.