Opinion
No. 3409/12.
2012-07-17
The PEOPLE of the State of New York v. Nathan VILLAREAL, Defendant.
Daniel M. Donovan, Jr., Richmond County District Attorney, by ADA Rhiannon Haddad, Staten Island, for the People. Kenneth Womble, Esq., Brooklyn Defender Services, Brooklyn, for the Defendant.
Daniel M. Donovan, Jr., Richmond County District Attorney, by ADA Rhiannon Haddad, Staten Island, for the People. Kenneth Womble, Esq., Brooklyn Defender Services, Brooklyn, for the Defendant.
MATTHEW J. D'EMIC, J.
Defendant moves to dismiss the indictment on the ground that his right to testify before the grand jury was violated by the district attorney (CPL 190.50[5] ). Specifically, the defendant contends that the presenting prosecutor's questions about his prior convictions and a prior bad act against the complainant impaired the integrity of the proceeding and essentially denied him the right to testify.
The motion is denied.
The defendant, with his lawyer present, exercised his right to tell his story to the grand jury. The prosecutor did not interrupt him and it was only after he concluded his statement that she asked him about nine prior convictions. She then proceeded to question him about the allegations and probed his own statement. The prosecutor also gave the grand jurors limiting instructions with respect to the prior convictions and prior bad acts.
Under these circumstances it cannot be said that the defendant's right to testify was denied. He told his story uninterrupted. Although defense counsel believed the assistant district attorney was not going to go into the nature of the convictions, it was within her discretion to do so (People v. Thomas, 213 A.D.2d 73;CPL 190.30[7] ).
In sum, nothing in the presentation rises to the degree of corruption of the integrity of the proceedings sufficient to warrant dismissal of the indictment (People v. Davis, 83 AD3d 1210;People v. Meleance, 52 AD3d 845;People v. Mujahid, 45 AD3d 1184).
Additionally, the evidence presented was sufficient to sustain the charges.
This constitutes the Decision and Order of the court.