People v. Cesar
Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York; April 1, 1996; New York; State Appellate Court
The Supreme Court of Bronx County, under Justice Irene Duffy, issued an order on June 8, 1994, which initially dismissed certain counts of an indictment related to criminal possession of a controlled substance due to a failure to establish the element of scienter regarding aggregate weight. This decision was unanimously reversed on legal grounds. The appellate court reinstated the second and third counts of the indictment, which charged third and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, and remitted the case for further proceedings. The court found that the District Attorney's instructions to the Grand Jury sufficiently mirrored the statutory language of Penal Law §§ 220.16 and 220.09, enabling the Grand Jury to evaluate whether there was adequate evidence to support the essential elements of these crimes. The court stated that a Grand Jury does not require the same level of precision in instructions as a petit jury. The omission of the prosecutor to inform the Grand Jury about the necessity for the defendant to have knowledge of the weights of the controlled substances did not compromise the Grand Jury's integrity, which is necessary for a dismissal under CPL 210.35 (5). Although the initial order referred to a single count, the reasoning necessitated the dismissal of two counts related to the aggregate weight, both of which were reinstated by this order. The decision was concurred by Justices Rosenberger, Ellerin, Rubin, and Nardelli.