Articles Posted in Drug Possesion

In this Criminal action, the Judgment of the Supreme Court, New York County convicting defendant after trial by jury of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the First Degree, Conspiracy in the Second Degree and Criminal Use of Drug Paraphernalia in the Second Degree and sentencing defendant to various terms of imprisonment was affirmed.

The Magistrates only differs from a dissenting member on the question of sentence. The Court held that the then mandatory sentence of 15 to life imposed for the conviction of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the First Degree was required by law. The proof, although circumstantial, was sufficient to establish defendant’s accessorial liability with respect to the drug selling operation conducted by defendant’s co-defendant. A Queens County Criminal lawyer said that like the dissenting opinion, the Court was troubled by the draconian sentence. Yet, they cannot, in good conscience, say that this is the rare case which on its particular facts may lead to the opinion that the sentencing statute has been unconstitutionally applied.

While the proof lends itself to the conclusion that defendant, who controlled entrance into the apartment, was greeter, receptionist, general factotum and bodyguard, there is no reasonable doubt that his function was to “protect” the operation by excluding those who might seek to disrupt it. Thus, while he was, in the eyes of the law, an accessory to the crimes and is equally guilty, his participation in the criminal activity was markedly less than that of the principal actor.

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People v. Lopez

Court Discusses Whether a Sentence was Excessive for a Second time Offender

The defendant was charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree. He was arrested after possessing over twenty four thousand dollars of heroin for the purposes of selling the controlled substance. The defendant was 27 years of age at the time he was arrested and had one other conviction of possession of a weapon for which he received a conditional discharge and paid a two hundred dollars fine. The defendant was convicted of both a controlled substance in the first degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree and sentenced to a concurrent term of twenty years to life imprisonment on each count. The defendant appealed his conviction and sentence.

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People v McFadden

Court Discusses Conviction Against the Weight of the Evidence.

The defendant was charged for a criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree in connection with a single transaction. The first trial resulted in a deadlock by the jury on two of the most serious charges. The defendant was found guilty on a partial verdict of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree and the trial judge declared a mistrial on the other counts. A second trial was conducted on the charge of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree.

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The Grand Jury of the Special Narcotics Courts of the City of New York voted an indictment against the defendants charging them with four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, in violation of Penal Law § 265.03 (2); four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree in violation of Penal Law § 265.02 (4); and two counts of conspiracy in the fourth degree, in violation of Penal Law § 105.10 (1). In summary, the People allege that a confidential informant contacted defendant, offering him an opportunity to rob drug dealers of a valuable supply of narcotics and/or cash. Defendant allegedly accepted the informant’s offer, and engaged the three codefendants to be part of the robbery gang.

A Queens County Drug Crime lawyer said that the defendants filed omnibus discovery motions, to which the People responded. The People also supplied the grand jury minutes to the court for in camera examination pursuant to. After examining the grand jury minutes, the court ordered the parties to submit additional memoranda of law on two jurisdictional questions. First, in light of the fact that the indictment does not contain a single narcotics-related charge, does the Grand Jury of the Special Narcotics Courts of the City of New York have subject matter jurisdiction. Second, assuming, arguendo, the Special Narcotics Grand Jury has subject matter jurisdiction, does it also have geographic jurisdiction

The CI testified in the grand jury. In summary, the informant testified that he had continuous conversations with defendant; however, his testimony is devoid of any references to where he or defendant was located when they had those telephone conversations. Furthermore, it is apparent from the grand jury minutes that none of the face-to-face meetings between the informant and the defendants occurred in Manhattan. The sole reference to Manhattan in the informant’s testimony is contained in the informant’s recitation of why he was at a certain place at a certain time, to which the witness responded: “[I]t was an operation that had been assigned to me with those four people [the defendants] that the foreman of the jury mentioned which consisted of going to an apartment in Manhattan or in the Bronx with firearms, with guns, and it was to rob sixty kilos of cocaine.”

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In this appeal on a criminal case, the court was asked whether defendant’s entry of a guilty plea forfeited his claim that the misdemeanor information was deficient.

A New York Criminal attorney said that in January 2006, defendant was a passenger in an automobile that was stopped by a New York City police officer for having a faulty exhaust system. In the course of the traffic stop, the officer recovered what he believed were nine plastic bags of heroin together with a bag of marijuana from the vehicle’s center console, and a pipe from the glove compartment. Defendant and the other occupants of the car were arrested for criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree and unlawful possession of marijuana.

At his arraignment the next day, defendant pleaded guilty to seventh-degree possession of a controlled substance in return for a sentence of time served. The trial court informed defendant of the rights that he was waiving by entry of his plea, but did not advise defendant that he had the right to be prosecuted by misdemeanor information rather than a misdemeanor complaint. During the plea allocution, defendant admitted that he had possessed heroin.

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In September 1996, a seven-count indictment was filed with the court charging defendant with two counts of murder in the second degree; one count of attempted murder in the second degree; one count of reckless endangerment in the first degree; one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree; and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree.

A Queens County Criminal attorney said that the charges stem from a shooting incident, by defendant, which resulted to death and injuries of victims. The evidence at trial established that defendant, in an attempt to shoot the complainant and witness for the prosecution, shot and killed the other. The witness testified at trial on behalf of the People.

Approximately one month after the shooting, defendant was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon during a police organized buy and bust operation. Shortly after his arrest, Defendant told the police that he had just purchased the gun. He told other detectives later that evening about defendant’s crime and how defendant had shot and killed the other victim in his presence.

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The defendant is charged with one count of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, a class A misdemeanor. Pursuant to the Criminal Court complaint, a paralegal with the Kings County District Attorney’s Office states that she is informed by a Police Officer that on or about April 19, 2009, at 7:32 P.M. in Nostrand Avenue, the defendant was in possession of crack cocaine.

The Criminal Court complaint cites the police officer’s professional training in the identification of crack cocaine, and notes that the officer has previously made arrests for the criminal cocaine possession, and is familiar with the common methods of packaging crack cocaine.

The defendant was arraigned before the Criminal County Court. At that time, the People filed a supporting deposition signed by the Police Officer, which identified the contraband seized as a glass pipe containing crack cocaine residue. The People then asked that the complaint be deemed information. The defense objected, on the grounds that in the absence of a laboratory analysis of the substance recovered, there is no reasonable or probable cause to believe that the substance involved is a controlled substance.

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This is a motion by the plaintiff herein, the District Attorney of Queens County, pursuant to the recently enacted Article 13-A of the CPLR, entitled “Proceeds of a Crime Forfeiture”, for a preliminary injunction enjoining the defendants pending the determination of this forfeiture action, from selling, giving, transferring, pledging, mortgaging or otherwise alienating or encumbering their right, title and interest or any part thereof in certain parcels of real property located in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, which were allegedly purchased by the defendants with the “proceeds of a crime”.

A Queens County Criminal lawyer said that an eighty-four year old widow, resided alone in an apartment wherein she was being cared for by the defendant, a nurse, who was living with the co-defendant, the superintendent of the building. It appears that the defendants gained the trust and confidence of the widow, and convinced her that a third party had taken a “contract” on her life, whereby she was to be murdered for a fee. The defendants told the widow that if she would pay them the money that would go to the prospective murderer, they, in turn, would pay off the contract, thereby sparing her life. Believing this to be true, the widow wrote a series of sixteen checks to the order of defendant, in the aggregate sum of $154,500.00, which defendant deposited in her bank account. The original cancelled checks were obtained from defendant’s pocketbook at the time of her arrest, and copies of these checks were annexed to the moving papers.

It appears that the defendants employed the use of terror tactics to accomplish the coercion of the widow, in that at least on one occasion co-defendant, disguised and masked, entered the apartment posing as the would-be murderer, threatened her life in defendant’s presence, and demanded additional payments.

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After committing class B felonies involving narcotics, DLP, JEP and JAP were sentenced to indeterminate prison terms under the Rockefeller Drug Laws. This law governed the sentencing of drug offenders until 2005. DLP and JEP received sentences of 2 to 6 years while JAP received a sentence of 5 to 10 years. Thereafter, they all got paroled. However, all of them also subsequently violated their parole. Thus, they were all sent back to prison.

In 2009, after the enactment of DLRA, DLP, JEP and JAP applied for a resentencing. The Supreme Court denied the applications and held that relief under the statute was not available to reincarcerated parole violators.

DLP, JEP and JAP appealed.

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In this extraordinary case, the Court found that the defendant was deprived of a fair trial by the combination of the trial court’s mishandling of hearsay objections and its refusal to give a missing witness charge as to a registered jailhouse informant.

A Queens County Criminal attorney said that while incarcerated and awaiting trial on an embezzlement charge, the defendant allegedly asked a fellow inmate to introduce him to people who, for money, would be willing to kill two witnesses who were expected to testify against him. The inmate turned out to be a registered jailhouse informant who, at the time, was working with police on another case in which he reported that a different prisoner had also solicited his help in hiring a hit man. In the words of the lead detective in that case, in return for his help, the informant was looking for a “get out of jail free card.”

After the informant alerted the police to the defendant’s alleged request, an investigation was begun involving undercover police officers posing as contract killers. The investigation ultimately led to the defendant’s arrest. At trial, the position of the defense was that it was the informant who had first suggested, and then insisted, that the defendant speak with “hit men,” and that the defendant had done so only because he was afraid of the informant.

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