People v. Prado

• Decision Date: 16 December 2004
• Citation: 4 N.Y.3d 725,823 N.E.2d 824,790 N.Y.S.2d 418
• Parties: THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. CARLOS PRADO, Appellant.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

4 N.Y.3d 725

823 N.E.2d 824

790 N.Y.S.2d 418

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. CARLOS PRADO, Appellant.

Court of Appeals of the State of New York.

Argued November 18, 2004.

Decided December 16, 2004.

Lynn W.L. Fahey, New York City, for appellant.

Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Brooklyn (Diane R. Eisner, Leonard Joblove and Anthea H. Bruffee of counsel), for respondent.

Chief Judge KAYE and Judges CIPARICK, ROSENBLATT, GRAFFEO and READ concur; Judge R.S. SMITH dissents in part in an opinion; Judge G.B. SMITH dissents and votes to reverse and order a new trial in a separate opinion.

OPINION OF THE COURT MEMORANDUM.

The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed.

Defendant appeals his conviction following a bench trial for sexual abuse of his stepdaughter. With respect to the issue of alleged judicial bias that divided the Appellate Division, we agree with the majority that defendant's claim was unpreserved for appellate review (1 AD3d 533, 534 [2003]). Additionally, defendant's ineffectiveness of counsel claim — that his attorney failed to preserve an objection as to the lack of evidence corroborating his confession as required by CPL 60.50 — is without merit. At the close of the evidence, defense counsel made a general motion to dismiss the counts charged, which the trial court denied. While this objection alone would not have been sufficient to preserve the issue for our review (see e.g. People v Gray, 86 NY2d 10 [1995]), when coupled with the trial judge's specific findings as to corroboration, the question now on appeal was expressly decided by that court (see CPL 470.05).

R.S. SMITH, J. (dissenting in part).

I agree with the majority that defendant's judicial bias claim was not preserved, and that his claim that his confession was insufficiently corroborated was preserved. Unlike the majority, I conclude from this that we should decide the claim that was preserved: Was the confession sufficiently corroborated?

The majority avoids deciding this issue on the ground that defendant, on appeal, makes the mistaken assumption that he did not preserve the corroboration issue, and therefore his argument on corroboration is subsumed in an argument that trial counsel was ineffective. In other words, defendant argues on appeal that: (1) his confession was not adequately corroborated; and (2) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to preserve the point. Since we hold today that the point was preserved, the second half of defendant's argument is unnecessary.

That, in my opinion, is not a reason not to address the first half. Though defendant did not consecrate a separate point heading in his brief to arguing that his confession was insufficiently corroborated, he has made the argument, fully and ably, in his brief and orally. The question presented is, as Judge George B. Smith's dissent demonstrates, a difficult and important one. I do not suggest that I either agree or disagree with my namesake's views on the merits of the question, but I think we ought to decide it.

G.B. SMITH, J. (dissenting).

Because defendant's attorney was ineffective in failing to raise or argue that corroboration of defendant's confession was lacking and because the trial court made up its mind that the defendant was guilty prior to the bench trial, defendant was denied a fair trial. Accordingly, I dissent and would grant the defendant a new trial.

Defendant was convicted of course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree and endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to a determinate prison term of seven years and one year respectively.

The evidence against the defendant consisted of two written confessions and a videotaped confession in which he admitted sexual conduct against the child, his stepdaughter, when she was eight years old. The confessions were introduced through a detective. The child, 11 years old at the time of the trial, denied that the defendant abused her. There was no physical evidence of sexual abuse. The court and the prosecutor repeatedly questioned the child witness about the abuse. The court told the prosecutor to impeach the child's testimony with her grand jury testimony and the prosecution did so, reading questions and answers from that testimony that indicated sexual abuse. The defense attorney objected to the leading questions permitted by the court, "to the way this proceeding is going on," stating, "I think the witness is being intimidated," and to the use of the child's grand jury testimony. The mother of the child testified that the child had told her of the sexual abuse in 2000, three years after it had begun. At the end of the People's case, defendant moved to dismiss the indictment on the grounds that the People had failed to make out a prima facie case but did not specify why a prima facie case had not been made out (see People v Gray, 86 NY2d 10, 19 [1995]). Defendant took the stand and denied that any sexual abuse had occurred. He stated that his statements were coerced by the threatening manner of the police and by his discomfort in a cold room due to air conditioning. No motion to dismiss was made at the end of the entire case.

The problem in this case arose when, at trial, the child denied any sexual abuse had occurred. Thus, some evidence other than her testimony was necessary to comply with CPL 60.50 which states:

"A person may not be convicted of any offense solely upon evidence of a confession or admission made by him without additional proof that the offense charged has been committed."

The trial court, recognizing that compliance with CPL 60.50 was necessary, indicated that it did not believe the testimony of the child that nothing happened, that the child had been with the defendant when her mother attended Parent/Teacher Association meetings and that there had been a "timely outcry" to the mother even though the child did not tell her mother about the abuse for three years. The court found the defendant guilty.

The Appellate Division affirmed the...