New York Criminal Lawyer Blog

A New York Criminal Lawyer said that, in 1990, defendant pleaded guilty to rape in the first degree in satisfaction of a series of charges relating to a 1988 incident in which he pulled a stranger into an abandoned van and raped her. The victim managed to escape and flag down a passing police officer and defendant was arrested at the scene. At a SORA redetermination hearing in February 2006, defendant was adjudicated a level two risk—that is, a moderate risk of re-offense—based, in part, on the assessment of 30 points under factor 1 of the Risk Assessment Instrument (RAI) for having been armed with a dangerous instrument at the time of the rape. To establish defendant’s possession of a dangerous instrument, the District Attorney relied on three documents that are apparently used internally by the District Attorney’s office: a Data Analysis Form, a Grand Jury Synopsis Sheet and an Early Case Assessment Bureau Data Sheet.3 Various entries on these forms indicated that, in the course of the incident, defendant had threatened the victim with a “chrome strip” or “piece of metal”—a dangerous instrument.

A New York Sex Crimes Lawyer said that, defense counsel objected to the District Attorney’s reliance on these unsworn, unsigned documents, contending they did not constitute “reliable hearsay” under Correction Law § 168-n (3) and were therefore inadmissible at the SORA proceeding. Defendant did not, however, testify at the hearing, nor did he offer any evidence rebutting the dangerous instrument allegations. Without requiring the People to offer foundation evidence, Supreme Court relied on the documents, along with the indictment charging defendant with a weapon possession offense, to sustain the assessment of 30 points. This brought defendant within the moderate risk category (75 to 105 points) and the court therefore adjudicated defendant a level two offender. Absent the assessment of 30 points, defendant would have fallen within the presumptive level one, low risk category.

A divided Appellate Division affirmed the level two designation, concurring with Supreme Court that the internal documents of the District Attorney’s office constituted reliable hearsay admissible at a SORA proceeding.

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In this criminal case, the Court consider whether there is sufficient evidence to support a finding that the subject children are neglected pursuant to article 10 of the Family Court Act.

A New York Criminal attorney said that In October 2007, respondent father pleaded guilty to rape in the second degree, engaging in sexual intercourse with a person less than 15 years of age, and patronizing a prostitute in the third degree, which at the time of his conviction was defined as patronizing a prostitute less than 17 years of age. He was sentenced to one year imprisonment, and was released on time served. The court adjudicated father a level three sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA), but he was never ordered to attend any sex offender treatment. Father returned home, where he lived with his wife and their five children, then between the ages of four and 14.

In November 2007, the Dutchess County Department of Social Services (DSS) filed neglect petitions pursuant to Family Court Act article 10 against both parents. As relevant here, the petitions alleged that father neglected the children because he was an “untreated” sex offender whose crimes involved victims between 13 and 15 years old 1. Mother allegedly “failed to protect the children” from father. DSS sought to have the children adjudicated neglected, both parents ordered into a sex offender relapse intervention program, and a temporary order of protection issued against father on the children’s behalf.

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A Queens Criminal Lawyer said that, the defendant is a 16-year old with no criminal history who is charged with the offense of loitering for the purpose of prostitution. The charge is a non-criminal violation punishable by no more than fifteen days jail. When she appeared before the arraignment part she was also the subject of a warrant that had issued out of Family Court. The accusatory instrument pertinently alleges that the Police Officer observed the defendant remain in or wander about a public place for twenty minutes, during which defendant repeatedly beckoned to passers-by and stopped two passers-by, engaging in conversation with said passers-by; stop only male passers-by and defendant did not beckon to or converse with female passers-by who passed by during the same period; standing in the middle of the road while beckoning to motorists. Defendant stated, in substance, “I was coming from a party with my cousin.”

A Queens Sex Crimes Lawyer said that, at defendant’s arraignment, I addressed sua sponte whether I should dismiss this prosecution both as an exercise of my interests-of-justice power and in light of the recently enacted Safe Harbour for Exploited Children Act (the “Safe Harbour Act”), which I read to express the intent of the Legislature that 16- and 17-year-olds who are charged with prostitution offenses should be referred to Family Court rather than prosecuted criminally. The People requested an opportunity to address my proposed dismissal in writing, even though I noted that the legislative sponsors of the Safe Harbour Act believed that the mere pendency of criminal charges against these children was itself harmful: Arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating victimized youth serves to re-traumatize them and to increase their feelings of low self-esteem. This only makes the process of recovery more difficult. Appropriate services for sexually exploited youth do not exist in the juvenile justice system and both federal and international law recognize that sexually exploited youth are the victims of sex crimes and should be treated as such. Therefore, sexually exploited youth should not be prosecuted under the Penal Law for acts of prostitution. Instead services should be created to meet the needs of these youth outside of the justice system. Sexually exploited youth deserve the protection and services of the family court through processes in place for persons in need of supervision, including diversion, crisis intervention, counseling, and emergency and long term housing services.

The issue in this case is whether defendant is liable for the offense of loitering for the purpose of prostitution.

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A man was indicted and charged with the crimes of sodomy in the first degree, robbery in the first degree, sexual abuse in the first degree and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. The said crimes were committed but the man was not arrested until more than three years later.

The man was then tried for the crimes charged. A mistrial resulted because of a deadlocked jury which was reported to have said that its final vote was 10 to 2 for acquittal. The case consisted essentially of one-witness identification by the victim of the crime. A corporeal identification of the man was first made by the witness, more than three and a half years after the crime was committed, following the photo identification.

In preparing for a re-trial, the attorney of the man, who was newly retained after the first trial, requested the prosecution to produce certain evidence. The request was based upon the official police report prepared and signed by a detective. According to the report, the complainant struggled with her assailant and, in the course of the struggle the assailant cut his hand with his own knife.

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A 16 years old girl was arrested with the others in a raid of a house of prostitution. She was immediately brought to the district attorney’s office and questioned in the presence of the police officers. She stated that she had been forced by a man to enter and remain in the place. The police officer was then ordered by the district attorney to arrest the said man. The arrest however happened a few hours later without a warrant.

Upon the original arrest for the felonies of compulsory prostitution and abduction, an incidental search was made by the police officer. The said search uncovered a revolver from the man. An arrest was immediately made for the unrelated crime of possession of a dangerous weapon, a crime then and there being committed in the presence of the police officer.

The man was then separately indicted for the felonies of compulsory prostitution and abduction, and for the instant crime for possession of a dangerous weapon as a felony.

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A man is charged with the crime of failure to register as a sex offender. He then moves to dismiss the complaint on the ground that it is facially insufficient. He raises two interesting issues with respect to the complex and still relatively new law, namely the proper geographical jurisdiction for a trial for failure to register, and the extent to which the complainant must plead and ultimately prove that a previously convicted sex offender acted intentionally when violating his duty to register.

Subsequently, the court found first that the man may be prosecuted in Bronx County, the county where his original sex crimes was committed and where he still lives, even though the sex offender monitoring unit where the man failed to register as a sex offender was located in New York County.

Based on records, the Bronx County has the geographical jurisdiction over the man’s case because the man’s failure to register affects the Bronx County, in that the police and the community in the county will not receive appropriate sex offender act notifications about the man. However, in order to proceed with the case in the county, it will be the complainant’s burden at trial to prove that the man either intended or knew that his failure to register would affect Bronx.

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A 54 years old woman has a long history of drug abuse and a lengthy criminal history, consisting primarily of drug-related offenses.

During the woman’s younger age, she dropped out of school in the seventh or eighth grade because she was having problems at home, and began using speed and heroin. Following a stay in a rehabilitation facility, she was able to stop using drugs for a period of about nine years. However, after both of her parents became seriously ill and passed away, she began misusing the valium pills which had been prescribed to her for depression and insomnia.

Subsequently, she was arrested with her boyfriend on charges of assault, burglary, and robbery. The victim of the offense was the woman’s former boyfriend. Two days after her arrest, she was arraigned and released on her own recognizance. She and her boyfriend were subsequently charged with 12-count indictment, with multiple offenses including assault in the second degree.

This proceeding is an appeal by defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County, rendered 10 February 1977, convicting him of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first degree (three counts) and criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

The court reverses the judgment, on the law and as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice and a new trial is ordered, except as to defendant’s conviction of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first degree, which conviction is reversed, on the law, and the said indictment is dismissed.

The defendant was indicted for selling cocaine to an undercover police officer on four occasions in 1974. His defense was based on agency and entrapment.

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