Opinion
May 21, 1996
Appeal from the Family Court, New York County (George Jurow, J., Sheldon Rand, J., Edward Kaufman, J., Judith Sheindlin, J.).
Each of the petitions in these four juvenile delinquency proceedings involving a charge of either criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree or criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree is fatally defective because the forensic report, i.e., the ballistics report or the chemist's report, contained only a certification that the annexed report was a true and full copy of the original. Lacking in each case is any indication that the person certifying the accuracy of the report is the one who conducted the tests recited therein and prepared the original report. Thus, the reports are not based on non-hearsay allegations with respect to the element of the crime to which they are addressed and the petitions are jurisdictionally defective. ( Matter of Wesley M., 83 N.Y.2d 898; Matter of Rodney J., 83 N.Y.2d 503.) For that reason, it is of no consequence that the defect was not raised at the trial level. Nor is it of any consequence that the dispositional orders were entered prior to the date Rodney J. was decided. Rodney J. did not create a new rule of law and therefore should be retroactively applied. ( Matter of Taihem F., 222 A.D.2d 322.)
The unpublished Decision and Order of this Court entered herein on April 2, 1996 is hereby recalled and vacated.
Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Rosenberger, Ross, Williams and Tom, JJ.