This case involves the People of the State of New York against the defendant, Hopeton Gooden. The case is being heard in the Supreme Court of the State of New York located in Bronx County. The defendant of the case has moved to vacate his judgment of conviction.
Case Background
On the 15th of May in 1975 a judgment against the defendant was entered that convicted him of robbery in the third degree. The defendant was then sentenced to a maximum imprisonment of four years.
The respondent in this matter are the People of the State of New York. The People of the State of New York are represented by the office of Patrick Henry, District Attorney in Riverhead. Michael Blakey is their counsel. The appellant of the case is Alan M. Buckmaster. He is being represented by Alan Schneier from Valley Stream. The case is being heard in the Second Department, Appellate Division, of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
This is a case for appeal initiated by the defendant in regard to a judgment that was issued by the County Court of Suffolk County. Judge Rohl issued the judgment being appealed. The judgment convicted the defendant of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree. The defendant pled guilty to this crime.
Case Background
The complainant, a 19-year-old woman, reported to the town police that she had been raped and sodomized at gunpoint on a deserted beach near her home. The complainant testified that at about nine that evening she had received a phone call from a friend, telling her that he was in trouble and asking her to meet him at a nearby market in half an hour. Twenty minutes later, the same person called back and changed the meeting place. The complainant arrived at the agreed-upon place, shut off the car engine and waited. A New York DWI Lawyer said she saw a man approach her car and she unlocked the door to let him in. Only then did she realize that the person who had approached and entered the car was not the friend she had come to meet. According to the complainant, he pointed a gun at her, directed her to the nearby beach, and once they were there, raped and sodomized her.
The complainant arrived home around 11:00 P.M., woke her mother and told her about the attack. Her mother then called the police. Sometime between 11:30 P.M. and midnight, the police arrived at the complainant’s house. At that time, the complainant told the police she did not know who her attacker was. She was taken to the police station where she described the events leading up to the attack and again repeated that she did not know who her attacker was. At the conclusion of the interview, the complainant was asked to step into a private room to remove the clothes that she had been wearing at the time of the attack so that they could be examined for forensic evidence. While she was alone with her mother, the complainant told her that her male friend had been her attacker. The time was approximately 1:15 A.M. The complainant had known her friend for years, and she later testified that she happened to see him the night before the attack at a local convenience store.
Her mother summoned one of the detectives and the complainant repeated that the accused friend had been the person who attacked her. The complainant said that she was sure that it had been her friend because she had had ample opportunity to see his face during the incident. The complainant subsequently identified her friend as her attacker in two separate lineups. A New York DWI Lawyer said he was arrested and was indicted by the Grand Jury on one count of rape in the first degree, two counts of sodomy in the first degree and one count of sexual abuse in the first degree.
The Facts:
Sometime in 1978, defendant and his wife got married. In October of that year, shortly after the birth of their son, defendant began to beat his wife.
In early 1980, the wife brought a proceeding in the Family Court in Erie County seeking protection from the defendant.
The Facts:
On 10 September 1988, the victim, a married college professor, was driving from her home to a family wedding when, at about 7:30 P.M., she was stopped on the Northway by defendant, then a uniformed State Trooper. At defendant’s request, she gave him her license and registration. Defendant told her she was driving erratically and had failed to signal a lane change properly. He instructed her to leave her car, walk a straight line, and then enter the passenger seat of the patrol car, where he told her she could be in serious trouble, including DWI charges, and would have to blow in his face as a sobriety test. While she was doing this a second time, at defendant’s behest, he put his mouth on hers, began fondling her, and told her he was going to make it or do it with her, but first had to go to State Police barracks for a condom. The victim followed defendant to the barracks in her own car, though he retained her license and registration. She testified that she remained terrified throughout this entire period believing that, with defendant armed, any escape attempt in an unfamiliar area would be futile and even fatal.
At the barracks, defendant placed the victim in the police car, instructing her to remain there while he went inside. She testified that she was still frozen with fear, not knowing whether defendant had friends in the barracks who knew what he was doing. On his return, they drove off while the victim, believing it vital to her safety, engaged defendant in conversation. When they reached a secluded area, defendant, still armed, sexually attacked her. He thereafter returned with her to the barracks and allowed her to proceed to her destination, where she explained to the wedding guests that she was late because of a car trouble. On her return home, after being unable to eat or sleep for two days, and overcoming her fear that defendant would harm her, the victim contacted a local rape crisis center, which ultimately led to a report to the State Police, an investigation, and defendant’s arrest.
The accused was indicted for rape, assault and incest. The complainant is his thirty-six year old half-sister. The court dismissed the first count of the indictment charging rape by force, and the jury found the accused guilty of the remaining count of rape under the Penal Law, assault and incest.
A New York DWI Lawyer said he accused moved for an order arresting the judgment of conviction and setting aside the verdict of guilt as to the rape and incest on the ground that it was contrary to law and against the weight of the evidence. No effort is made to disturb the verdict of guilty of the simple assault.
The accused contends that the jury, by finding him guilty of simple assault only, negated any intent on his part to commit a rape. He also contends that the crime of incest could not arise from the gluttonous act, upon which the jury based its finding, the essence of such crime being an act of intercourse arising from the mutual consent of relatives within the prescribed line of consanguinity set forth in the Penal Law.
The Facts:
On 21 May 2008, as amended on 28 May 2008, defendant was convicted by the Supreme Court, Bronx County of rape in the third degree, a criminal law violation. He was sentenced as a second felony offender to a term of 2 to 4 years.
The Ruling:
A female civilian employee at a correctional facility was walking down a hallway reserved for civilian employees only. Suddenly a man came up behind her and put his hand over her mouth. The woman struggled to free herself and asked the man what he wanted. He did not reply. He then slammed the woman down and she lay on her belly on the floor. The man pushed a sock or towel in to her mouth but the woman struggled and the sock/towel fell out and she screamed.
A New York DWI Lawyer said the man put the sock/towel in her mouth again and pushed it into her throat. All the time, the man was behind the woman so she did not see his face. He straddled the woman and started tying her hands together. The woman struggled again and managed to free her hands. She bit the man but the man overpowered her when he grabbed her hair and managed to pin her down once more.
Unknown to the woman, the man who was tying her up had already ejaculated in his pants even before he could pull the woman’s clothes off. His semen was found on the sock/towel which was shoved into the woman’s mouth. It was on the back of the woman’s shirt and on the inmate’s prison clothes.
The fifteen year old alleged kid victim related that on July 13, the accused approached him in back of a store and started to talk to him about different things, such as drugs and pinball machines. The accused reached into his pocket for some old coins. He accused the kid of having stolen the coins. He made the kid believe that he did a telephone call to a man pretending audibly that the man on the telephone owns a store and was missing the coins which the kid possessed. The accused borrowed money from the witness; bought a bottle of wine and walked with the kid to the river. A New York DWI Lawyer said he accused man forced the complainant kid to drink some of the wine, after which he removed the kid’s clothes and reciprocal oral sodomy took place, as well as other forms of deviate sexual intercourse. The kid participated under fear of bodily harm, remembering stories of kids being killed down by the river. Following the experience, they walked away from the river and the kid succeeded in running away from the accused man. He arrived at a gas station and wanted to call his home or the police, but was unsuccessful because of lack of money. He then walked home and reported his experience to his Grandmother and Father and then to the police.
The gas station owner testified that the alleged kid victim came running to his gas station and asked to borrow a dime to call the police. The kid told the witness of having been attacked down by the river. The kid appeared to be shook up, nervous and he wasn’t crying. He pointed out a man in a white shirt and dark pants who he said had just attacked him, but the witness stated that he would not be able to identify him.
A gas station employee was the last witness to testify. A New York DWI Lawyer said he was employed by the store in which the alleged victim and the accused man appeared and the telephone call was made concerning the old coins. He confirmed what the kid, the alleged victim, had previously told the Grand Jury with respect to the accused man’s audible conversation with a man concerning missing coins. After the phone call, they walked out of an entrance way that leads into an alley and the boy seemed to be arguing he didn’t do it, and he kept his hand on the shoulder and pushed him out the back entrance.
The man is charged with the offense of rape in the first degree and incest. However, the man moved his legal action for certain relief, discovery and inspection as well as dismissal of the accusatory instrument.
The man alleged that the provisions of penal law are unconstitutional and therefore the first count of the instant charge is defective and the motion to dismiss is proper.
A New York DWI Lawyer said the man based his argument on the constitutional guarantees of equal protection of the laws and due process of law under the applicable constitutional provisions. The two pronged attack states first that the statute is gender based and the format of that law therefore penalizes males because of their sex, while females similarly situated are not affected. It also denies to young male potential victims the protection it affords to young women, all without reasonable cause. Moreover, the counsel of the man further asserts that the law distinction in the instant case is based upon archaic notions and sexual stereotypes and cannot survive rational analysis.
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