New York Criminal Lawyer Blog

Published on: June 28, 2012

Court Decides if Prior Convictions Should be Considered Felonies

by Stephen Bilkis

The Facts:

Defendant has been found guilty of assault in the second degree, with intent to rape. He is now before the court for sentencing.

A New York Sex Crimes Lawyer said that a “prior offense” Information has been filed by the District Attorney which alleges that the defendant is now a second felony offender by reason of the fact that he was previously convicted, after trial, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, of three crimes, viz.: aggravated assault and battery, assault with intent to ravish and rape.

Published on: June 28, 2012

Rape Trauma Syndrome Discussed by Appellate Court

by Stephen Bilkis

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.

Published on: June 28, 2012

Court Discusses Crime of Rape in the Third Degree

by Stephen Bilkis

The Facts:

Defendant was charged with robbery, larceny, assault (two counts), endangering the welfare of a child, and sexual abuse in the third degree; a six-count indictment on criminal law violations.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said these the crimes were allegedly committed on 26 September 1967, the prosecution was under the new Penal Law, which was enacted in 1965, effective as of 1 September 1967.

Published on: June 27, 2012

Attorneys Argue Issue of Consent

by Stephen Bilkis

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:

Published on: June 27, 2012

Defendant Contends All Evidence Is Circumstantial

by Stephen Bilkis

A woman who lived alone in an apartment in Manhattan called her boyfriend who lived in the Bronx. She said that a man was in her apartment. The man (the accused) had knocked and asked her if she could help him find the man who had raped his wife and pushed her down the stairs thus suffering a miscarriage. The woman asked the man to speak with her boyfriend on the telephone. A New York Drug Crime Lawyer said that the boyfriend talked with the man for about five minutes. And then the man put the phone down. The girlfriend came back on the line and hastily said goodbye to her boyfriend.

The boyfriend, alarmed, hurried to her girlfriend’s apartment. He asked the building superintendent to open the door. He found his girlfriend lying lifeless with a knife stuck in her abdomen in a pool of her blood. A panty hose was tied and knotted tightly around her neck. Her lingerie drawer was open and her underwear was strewn all over.

The police soon came and found a hair on the woman’s mouth. The investigators determined that the woman was strangled and the bones in her neck had been broken.

Published on: June 27, 2012

Court Discusses Probable Cause for Blood Sample

by Stephen Bilkis

In August 1991, two police officers from Yonkers, New York were sent to investigate a reported rape and robbery which occurred in an apartment building. A New York Sex Crimes Lawyer said the woman who claimed to have been raped told the detectives that she was raped at knifepoint. She gave the description of her attacker to the police including the attacker’s physical traits such as his height, approximate age, his body build, the clothes he wore, his race and even the way he smelled.

The detectives went to the basement of the building where the garbage chute emptied out into a dumpster and found clothes similar to the clothes described as worn by the attacker of the woman. A New York Sex Crimes Lawyer said near the dumpster there were also found some surgical gloves, a white panty hose tied in knots and a knife.

The police detectives asked the residents of the building if they knew any person in the building who fit the description given by the woman who was raped and they were led to the apartment of the accused.

Published on: June 27, 2012

Defendant Contends Incriminating Evidence Being Used

by Stephen Bilkis

On August 24, 1977, a woman reported to the police that she had been raped that morning. One month after the reported rape, the District Attorney applied to the court to compel the accused to participate in a line up in connection with the investigation of the August 1977 rape. The application was denied by the court.

A year later, on August 24, 1978, another woman from the same town reported a rape in the early morning. She said that a man who drove a Cadillac Eldorado had raped her. She memorized the license plate. The police checked the license plate and it matched the license plate of a Cadillac Eldorado which was reported stolen.

Three hours after the report of the rape, the police found the Cadillac Eldorado parked by the roadside and the accused sleeping inside the car. A New York Criminal Lawyer said he was arrested and taken to the police station. Later that morning, he was arraigned for criminal possession of stolen property. At his arraignment, he was told that he had the right to be represented by a lawyer of his own choosing and if he cannot afford one, a lawyer can be provided for him but the accused refused to be represented by a lawyer.

Published on: June 26, 2012

Defendnt Claims Jury Was Prejudiced Against Him

by Stephen Bilkis

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.

Published on: June 26, 2012

Court Discusses Use of Uncorroborated Evidence

by Stephen Bilkis

The Facts:

On 10 October 1965, defendant broke and entered a room, housing at that time the complainant alone, armed with a knife, forcibly committed upon her person (according to the complainant’s testimony) an act of consummated, though uncorroborated, rape.

Thereafter, defendant is charged with the crimes of Burglary Third Degree (Breaking and Entering a Building with Intent to Commit a Crime therein) and Assault First Degree (Assault with Intent to Commit a Felony upon the person of the one Assaulted with a Deadly Weapon) in two separate counts.

Published on: June 26, 2012

Court Discusses Offense of 3d Degree Sexual Abuse

by Stephen Bilkis

The Facts:

According to a New York Sex Crimes Lawyer, the defendant was charged with robbery, larceny, assault (two counts), endangering the welfare of a child, and sexual abuse in the third degree; a six-count indictment on criminal law violations.

As the crimes were allegedly committed on 26 September 1967, the prosecution was under the new Penal Law, which was enacted in 1965, effective as of 1 September 1967.