The criminal defendant was convicted, after a jury trial, of sex abuse in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child, both charges arising out of a single incident that allegedly occurred when the defendant took the complaining witness to see a movie.
As a preliminary matter, the County court reject the argument that the pertinent claims of prosecutorial misconduct are not preserved for appellate review. Under the particular circumstances, the defense counsel’s general objections to the prosecutor’s comments, and subsequent motion for a mistrial, preserved the claims.
With respect to the merits of the defendant’s claims, while the prosecutor has wide latitude to comment upon every pertinent matter of fact bearing upon the questions the jury have to decide, such latitude does not permit an unbridled debate in which the restraints imposed at trial are cast aside so that counsel may employ all rhetorical devices at his command. There are certain well-defined limits. Moreover, the fundamental obligation of a prosecutor is to seek justice, and not merely obtain a conviction.