People v. Rowland

157 Misc. 2d 114, 595 N.Y.S.2d 881, 1992 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 648
CourtCriminal Court of the City of New York
DecidedNovember 6, 1992
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 157 Misc. 2d 114 (People v. Rowland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Criminal Court of the City 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. Rowland, 157 Misc. 2d 114, 595 N.Y.S.2d 881, 1992 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 648 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1992).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Joseph J. Maltese, J.

After a bench trial, defendant Ralph Rowland was convicted of attempted assault in the third degree. This court found that during the Crown Heights disturbances which followed the accidental death of an African-American child during a motorcade of Hasidic clerics and the subsequent killing of a 29-year-old rabbinical student in August of 1991, the defendant threw a bottle which struck and injured a police officer. The officer arrested the defendant who was found guilty of attempted assault in the third degree. The defendant now moves (1) to vacate the verdict of guilty and to order a new trial or (2) in the alternative, to have the original information dismissed in the furtherance of justice.

The defendant argues that the guilty verdict should be vacated and a new trial ordered because the People did not promptly supply, prior to trial, a hospital report and a line of duty report of the officer’s injuries; and, that the failure to make this material available to the defense constituted Brady and a per se Rosario violation which mandates a vacatur of the verdict.

The argument is advanced, notwithstanding defense counsel’s acknowledgement that the injury to the officer is not a necessary element of attempted assault.

After arresting the defendant, the officer went to a hospital for treatment. Defendant was charged with two counts of assault, reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and riot. By the time this case came to trial due to various pretrial procedural and substantive considerations, all of these charges were reduced to only one charge of attempted assault in the third degree.

The District Attorney was directed on December 5, 1991 to turn over to defense counsel the hospital records of the [116]*116arresting officer. The records had not been supplied by March 1992. Due to this delay in producing the hospital medical records of the arresting officer, Judge Karopkin, of this court, sanctioned the prosecution and ordered that the prosecution be precluded from introducing the medical records at trial. Also precluded was any testimony regarding the officer’s hospital treatment. Subsequently the District Attorney did obtain the medical records and supplied them to the defense immediately prior to trial; however, the sanctions remained in effect and neither the medical records nor testimony concerning the treatment were admitted during the trial.

It is the defense’s position that the court-ordered sanctions precluding the introduction of said hospital records and testimony at trial did not relieve the prosecution of its Brady and Rosario obligations. The defense claims that the failure of the District Attorney to make these two items available to the defense constituted per se Brady and Rosario violations and, therefore, this motion must be granted.

Based upon information and belief, the defense alleges that the hospital records contained information regarding the police officer’s injury and treatment which was exculpatory to the defendant and therefore constituted Brady material. The defense asserts that the hospital records contained written statements made by the arresting officer to medical personnel regarding diagnosis and possible treatment constitute Rosario material.

Although, the defense counsel had an opportunity to inspect the hospital records prior to trial, the defendant has given no specific examples of either Brady or Rosario materials in the report nor have any specific items been cited in support of these allegations.

The defendant asserts that a second Brady and Rosario violation occurred following the trial but prior to the sentencing of the defendant when the People forwarded to the defense counsel a copy of a line of duty report partially prepared and signed by the arresting police officer. The line of duty report is an internal police department form by which the injured police officer reports his injuries. As this report came to the prosecution’s attention after the trial, it obviously was not available to the defendant in time to be used at the trial.

The defense has not made clear which elements of Brady and Rosario are applicable to (a) the hospital records and (b) the line of duty report although they are each subject to different treatment.

[117]*117As all evidence of the hospital treatment had been precluded and the charge of attempted assault does not require any injury or actual physical contact, no evidence in the records has been shown to be relevant to this action. Initially it is noted that the defendant’s moving papers do not point to any item in the hospital records that could be beneficial to the defendant’s case or that could have been used in the cross-examination of the People’s witnesses. The defendant has not established that the material was, in fact, subject to the Brady rule and also misreads the consequences of not providing such material. See People v Beam (161 AD2d 1153 [4th Dept 1990]) which held that the trial court did not err in refusing to impose sanctions upon the prosecution for failing to turn over Brady material until the commencement of the trial.

The defense has not established that the hospital records contained any Brady material. It is their contention, on information and belief, that the hospital records are Brady material; however, more is required to justify dismissal than mere suspicion and conjecture. This is particularly true where sanctions have been imposed striking all mention of the records and preventing the arresting officer from testifying on that subject.

The Brady rule (Brady v Maryland, 373 US 83) did not require that disclosure of exculpatory material be made at any particular point of the proceeding, but only that it be made in time for the defense to use it effectively (see, People v Bolling, 157 AD2d 733). In Bolling the lab report in question was provided to the defense during the cross-examination of complainant, the People’s first witness. Therefore, the Court found that the defense was afforded an ample opportunity to utilize it, although it chose not to do so and there is no indication that an earlier disclosure would have had any effect on the outcome of the trial (see, People v Vilardi, 76 NY2d 67; People v White, 178 AD2d 674 [2d Dept 1991]). Dismissal or preclusion of testimony is too harsh a sanction where less severe measures can rectify the harm done.

With respect to the Rosario evidence which the defense contends exists in the medical records and the line of duty report, the rule was promulgated by the Court of Appeals in People v Rosario (9 NY2d 286 [1961]), upon its "right sense of justice” (at 289) that statements of prosecution witnesses contained in the District Attorney’s file must be turned over to the defense prior to cross-examination. The underlying [118]*118premise of this rule is that it is just and fair. Upon this premise, the Court upheld the conviction of Rosario finding that the documents withheld contained "few variances * * * of a most inconsequential character” (at 291). The Court thus applied harmless error analysis even in a capital case.

The People contend (a) that the hospital records were not within the control of the People prior to the date they were precluded and (b) that they contain no Brady

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Related

People v. Gervais
195 Misc. 2d 129 (Criminal Court of the City of New York, 2003)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
157 Misc. 2d 114, 595 N.Y.S.2d 881, 1992 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 648, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-rowland-nycrimct-1992.