Opinion
2014-10-30
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Lorenzo PADIN, Defendant–Appellant.
Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Lauren Kaplin of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Brian R. Pouliot of counsel), for respondent.
Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Lauren Kaplin of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Brian R. Pouliot of counsel), for respondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Cassandra M. Mullen, J.), rendered October 5, 2010, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal contempt in the first degree, tampering with a witness in the fourth degree and assault in the third degree, and sentencing him to an aggregate term of two to four years, unanimously affirmed.
We reject defendant's challenges to the sufficiency and weight of the evidence supporting the contempt conviction ( see People v. Danielson, 9 N.Y.3d 342, 348–349, 849 N.Y.S.2d 480, 880 N.E.2d 1 [2007] ). The record supports reasonable inferences that defendant intended to harass, annoy, threaten, or alarm the victim when he made hundreds of calls to her in violation of an order of protection, and that he lacked any legitimate purpose for doing so ( seePenal Law § 215.51[b][iv] ).
To the extent that a portion of the prosecutor's summation could be viewed as containing a misstatement of law, it did not deprive defendant of a fair trial, and any prejudice was avoided by the court's instructions, which the jury is presumed to have followed ( see People v. Moreno, 100 A.D.3d 435, 437, 953 N.Y.S.2d 202 [1st Dept.2012], lv. denied20 N.Y.3d 987, 958 N.Y.S.2d 703, 982 N.E.2d 623 [2012] ). TOM, J.P., SWEENY, ANDRIAS, MOSKOWITZ, GISCHE, JJ., concur.