People v. Sibblies

• Decision Date: 08 April 2014
• Docket Number: No. 44,44
• Parties: The People & c., Respondent, v. Marsha Sibblies, Appellant.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

2014 NY Slip Op 02377

The People & c., Respondent,
v.
Marsha Sibblies, Appellant.

No. 44

Court of Appeals of New York

Decided April 8, 2014

Jonathan Garelick, for appellant.
Kayonia L. Whetstone, for respondent.

Order reversed and information dismissed. Defendant's motion to dismiss the information under CPL 30.30 should have been granted. Chief Judge Lippman and Judges Graffeo, Read, Smith, Pigott and Rivera concur. Chief Judge Lippman concurs in an opinion in which Judges Smith and Rivera concur. Judge Graffeo concurs in an opinion in which Judges Read and Pigott concur. Judge Abdus-Salaam took no part.

LIPPMAN, Chief Judge (concurring):

Page 2

The Court is unanimous in holding that the People did not meet their CPL 30.30 speedy trial obligation to be timely ready for trial and, as a result, the misdemeanor information should be dismissed.

The issue is whether the period of time between an off-calendar declaration of readiness for trial by the People and their statement of unreadiness at the next court appearance may be excluded from the statutory speedy trial period under CPL 30.30. We would hold that such a period of prosecutorial readiness may not be excluded from the speedy trial period unless the People's unreadiness is occasioned by an exceptional fact or circumstance.

I

Defendant Marsha Sibblies was arrested on November 27, 2006 and charged with various felony and misdemeanor offenses arising out of an altercation during a traffic stop. On February 8, 2007, the People moved to dismiss the only felony charge and replaced the felony complaint with a misdemeanor information, charging, among other offenses, assault in the third degree. The filing of the misdemeanor information started the 90-day statutory speedy trial period for the People to declare readiness for trial (see CPL 30.30 [5] [c]). On February 22, 2007, the People filed an off-calendar certificate of readiness and a supporting deposition.

Eight days later, on March 2, 2007, the People requested the medical records of the officer injured in the altercation. On March 28, 2007, the next scheduled control date, the People told the court that they were not ready: "Your honor, the People are not ready at this time. The People are continuing to investigate and are awaiting medical records [of the officer injured in the altercation]." The People indicated that they expected to receive the records within a week, which they apparently did.

The People did not file a second certificate of readiness until May 23, 2007, 104 days after the speedy trial period began to run. At the following control date, the case was adjourned so that counsel could file the motion to dismiss the misdemeanor information under CPL 30.30 that is the subject of this appeal.

Supreme Court denied the motion, apparently excluding the 34 days between the People's declaration of readiness and the March 28 appearance from the 104-day period. The case proceeded to trial, at which the People offered the testimony of the injured police officer as well as his medical records. Defendant was convicted of obstructing governmental administration in the second degree and resisting arrest but was acquitted of assault in the third degree. The Appellate Division affirmed, rejecting defendant's speedy trial argument (98 AD3d 458 [1st Dept 2012]). It reasoned that the People were ready for trial on February 22 because they could have made out a prima facie case for assault in the third degree even in the absence of the officer's medical records.

A Judge of this Court granted defendant leave to appeal (20 NY3d 1104 [2013]).

II

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By the early 1970's, the Legislature had become concerned with the backlog of cases in the criminal courts that caused lengthy delays in bringing defendants to trial (People v Anderson, 66 NY2d 529, 535 n 1 [1985] [citing McKinney's Session Laws of NY, at 3259]). These delays deprived defendants of their right to a prompt trial, hindered the People's ability to try cases effectively, and undermined public confidence in the criminal justice system (see id.). The Legislature passed CPL 30.30 in 1972 in an effort to remedy these problems (id.).

CPL 30.30 seeks to accomplish its goal by obligating the People to prepare promptly for trial (id.; People v Price, 14 NY3d 61, 63 [2010]). To that end, the People must be ready to try a defendant accused of a misdemeanor within 90 days of commencement of the action and maintain readiness thereafter (CPL 30.30 [1] [b]; People v Stirrup, 91 NY2d 434, 440 [1998]). To be ready, the People must (1) declare in open court that they are ready or file an off-calendar certificate of readiness and serve it on defense counsel, and (2) "in fact be ready to proceed at the time they declare readiness" (People v Chavis, 91 NY2d 500, 505 [1998]).

As to the first requirement, the off-calendar certificate allows the People to declare readiness in a timely manner, even where the statutory period expires before the next court date. In Stirrup we explained that when the People's lack of readiness necessitates an adjournment, "a subsequent [off-calendar] statement of readiness can save the People from liability for the remainder of the adjournment period" (id. at 436).

As to the second requirement, readiness requires more than simply "mouthing" the words (People v England, 84 NY2d 1, 4-5 [1994]). "The inquiry is whether the People have done all that is required of them to bring the case to a point where it may be tried" (id. at 4).

Where the People fail to declare readiness within the statutory period, a defendant may move to dismiss the accusatory instrument (CPL 170.30 [1] [e]). The defendant bears the initial burden of demonstrating that the People were not ready within 90 days (see People v Santos, 68 NY2d 859, 861 [1986]). The burden then shifts to the People to...