People v. Walsh

176 Misc. 2d 144, 671 N.Y.S.2d 884, 1997 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 693
CourtCriminal Court of the City of New York
DecidedNovember 14, 1997
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 176 Misc. 2d 144 (People v. Walsh) 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. Walsh, 176 Misc. 2d 144, 671 N.Y.S.2d 884, 1997 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 693 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Thomas Farber, J.

Defendant moves to dismiss the prosecutor’s information [145]*145pursuant to CPL 30.30. I am granting the motion on default. This is the fourth time, in spite of repeated, strongly worded admonitions, that the Assistant District Attorney assigned to the case has failed to obey a court-ordered deadline. Moreover, not only has the assigned Assistant repeatedly failed to appear personally on this matter, she has repeatedly failed to have her file in court in a timely manner. She has misrepresented her readiness status in open court, and, in filing her belated response to the instant motion, continues to misrepresent both the factual history of the case and the applicable case law. Accordingly, I now take the drastic step of dismissing the case on default. Were I to decide the case on the merits, however, I would still grant defendant’s motion, since the People have exceeded the 90-day readiness period set forth in CPL 30.30 (1) (b).

BACKGROUND

Defendant was arrested on March 18, 1997, and charged in a felony complaint with assault in the second degree, Penal Law § 120.05 (4), endangering the welfare of a child, Penal Law § 260.10 (1), and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, Penal Law § 265.01 (2). The charges arise out of an incident that allegedly occurred on March 15, 1997, in which the defendant, in the course of striking a 12-year-old child with a broom handle, accidentally gouged out his right eye when the child grabbed the broom handle and defendant released it.

Defendant was arraigned on the felony complaint on March 19, 1997, but the case was not immediately presented to a Grand Jury. On April 15, 1997, when the case appeared in Part AP-1 marked “final” for Grand Jury action, the People announced that the Grand Jury had not voted an indictment, but had instead directed the People to file a prosecutor’s information. The case was adjourned to Part AP-2B for April 18, 1997.

A prosecutor’s information was not, however, filed on April 18, 1997. Indeed, the People did not even have their file in court. Since the People had not filed the prosecutor’s information, the docket appeared to be simply a reduced and uncorroborated felony. The case was therefore adjourned to May 21, 1997 for conversion to an information.

The prosecutor’s information was filed on May 6, 1997, together with a statement of readiness, dated May 1, 1997. When the case again appeared on the Part AP-2B calendar, the defense was ordered to file motions by June 9, 1997. The [146]*146People were given until June 30, 1997 to respond. The case was adjourned to July 7, 1997 for decision.

Defendant’s motion papers were served and filed on June 10, 1997 — one day late. The People, however, did not respond within the three-week period allotted. Indeed, they had not responded on July 7, 1997 when the case again appeared on the Part AP-2B calendar. To compound the matter the People’s file was again not in court, and the Assistant District Attorneys in the Part did not know to whom the case was assigned.

In order to expedite matters, I ordered the People to provide the discovery that would usually be provided pursuant to “discovery by stipulation.” I further ordered the People to provide a copy of the victim’s videotaped statement (which, according to the defense, exonerated the defendant) and to respond to the bill of particulars. The People were ordered to provide this information by July 18, 1997 and the case was put over to July 24, 1997 for trial. The People were warned that in light of their failure to respond to motions they risked suppression of critical evidence.

In spite of this warning, the People provided nothing to the defense or to the court on July 18, 1997. Instead, the People waited until the next date the case was calendared, July 24, 1997, and then served and filed their response to motions. The videotape had still not been provided, and there was no explanation for this failure. The People were again warned, in no uncertain terms, that this continued failure to adhere to the court’s directives might result in sanctions. The case was adjourned to September 5, 1997.

On September 5, 1997 the People again answered not ready for trial. The videotaped statement, which the People had been ordered to provide by July 18, 1997, had not been provided until August 28, 1997, some 41 days late. There was, again, no explanation for this failure. Moreover, although I had clearly indicated on the prior date that I was adjourning the case for trial, the People claimed not even to know that the case was on for trial.

The People requested one week to be ready. For the third time, I threatened the People with sanctions for their repeated failure to respond timely to my discovery orders. The case was adjourned to September 9, 1997.

On the morning of September 9, 1997 the People answered ready for trial in open court. As in every prior adjournment, the assigned Assistant did not appear, leaving it to the [147]*147calendar Assistant to inform the court of the People’s readiness based upon notes attached to the file. At the time, Part AP-2B was on trial in another matter, so the case was sent to Part Jury 2.

In light of the assigned Assistant’s repeated failure to appear on the matter, defense counsel requested that I not send the case out to trial until we had seen the assigned Assistant. I declined, but promised that if the People were not in fact ready, I would “certainly grant sanctions.”

The case was sent to Part Jury 2 at 12:00 p.m. Shortly thereafter, the court was informed that the assigned Assistant would not be available at 12:00 p.m., but would be there by 2:15 p.m. At 2:15 p.m., however, the People announced that, contrary to all prior advice, they were not ready to proceed. Indeed, the assigned Assistant was ill and had not come to work that day. The calendar Assistant informed the court that the assigned Assistant had a “double ear infection,” which perhaps adequately explained her failure to be ready. It did not explain, however, why the People had answered ready in the morning without informing the court or defense counsel that the assigned Assistant had not even shown up for work. For the fourth time, I chastised the People for their failure to respond to deadlines, and for the misrepresentation of their readiness status to me on the record. Yet, in spite of my promise that “I will certainly grant sanctions,” I reserved decision. The case was adjourned to September 19, 1997 with time charged to the People until a statement of readiness was served and filed.

No statement of readiness was filed, and the People in fact answered not ready again on September 19, 1997 stating that the assigned Assistant was on trial. The case was adjourned to October 17, 1997, again with the notation that the People would be charged until a statement of readiness was served and filed.

On October 17, 1997 the case was called in the morning. The People’s file was once again not in court. There was no indication whether the People were ready. The assigned Assistant was called at home. She had apparently been working the evening before and had forgotten the case was on for trial. I told the People that if they were not ready for trial the case would be dismissed. The People said they would be ready by the afternoon. The case was adjourned.

The assigned Assistant appeared in the afternoon. The case had been on in Part AP-2B nine separate times over a five-month period.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
176 Misc. 2d 144, 671 N.Y.S.2d 884, 1997 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 693, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-walsh-nycrimct-1997.