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While being selfish is not criminal, is potentially exposing others to the coronavirus, knowing that you may be infected with COVID-19, a violation of the New York Penal Law? What if you were concerned enough to be tested for the coronavirus and were awaiting the results? What if before you confirmed one way or another whether you were sick and infected, you boarded a JetBlue flight from New York’s JFK Airport to West Palm Beach, Florida? What if that plane carried 114 passengers and crew? What if there were countless news reports about voluntary quarantines, the concerns over air travel, how the disease spreads, and, most importantly, the potential for illness or even death? Sadly, this is not a “what if” hypothetical. The real questions should be whether this passenger committed a crime, and more specifically, Reckless Endangerment in the Second Degree pursuant to New York Penal Law 120.20.

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What’s next for disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein after a Manhattan jury convicted him of First Degree Sexual Act, Penal Law 130.50? Is jail mandatory and, if so, how much prison time is Weinstein facing at his sentencing? Additionally, will the former producer have to register as a sex offender pursuant to New York’s Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA)? What happens now with Weinstein’s potential prosecution in Los Angeles? Setting these issues and questions aside, what is in store for the former silver screen tycoon as he awaits Judge James “Jim” Burke’s last gavel strike on March 11th and beyond?

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While a Domestic Violence arrest is far more troubling than being served with a non-criminal Order of Protection issued by a New York Family Court Judge, when the foundation of either claim is fraudulent, fictitious, exaggerated or intentionally misleading, it is both debilitating and demoralizing.  Simply, whether at the legal sufficiency stage or at a fact-finding hearing or trial, fighting back and taking it to your accuser within the four corners of the law is your best recourse for full exoneration. Fortunately, for a client subject to a complete Stay Away Order after a sibling filed an Article 8 Family Offense Petition, Crotty Saland PC’s Family Court attorneys and Order of Protection lawyers secured a complete dismissal of the action in its entirety upon the filing of a motion to dismiss.

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At his State of the State address, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo formally rolled out his proposal to codify the Hate Crime Anti-Terrorism Act and combat anti Semitic and other discriminatory attacks. Encompassing more stringent elements than his late summer consideration of the law, the Governor views this future offense as a class “A1” violent felony. The statute, if passed by the legislature and ultimately incorporated into the Penal Law, would be punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole.

While by no means an examination of the law since none has yet been codified, the following is a brief review of the potential crime as addressed in a recent New York Law Journal article.

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When someone is charged with a DWI in New York City, or elsewhere in the state such as Westchester County or Rockland County, there are numerous complex issues that routinely arise. In every such DUI case, it is critical that your DWI lawyer examine and potentially challenge everything from the initial basis for the police pulling over the vehicle and the breathalyzer test or tests to the blood-alcohol content (BAC reading) and more. While car stops are routine in daily life even if not for a VTL 1192 drunk driving crime – it’s hard to imagine driving for an hour on a busy road and not seeing a car pulled over by a police officer for one reason or another. No matter the offense charged, NY vehicular crimes can be surprisingly complex from a legal point of view. One of the issues in this area of the criminal justice system that often arises is when you, an accused, have a right to counsel before submitting to a “chemical test” and what type of test falls under this umbrella.

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Orders of Protection are issued in the criminal courts of every county throughout the State of New York every day, from Brooklyn to Westchester, Manhattan to Rockland. They are issued primarily by Family Courts in the context of Family Offense Petitions and Criminal Court or County/Supreme Court in the context of criminal cases. Orders of Protection are often misunderstood or not fully understood, not only by those they are meant to restrict and protect, but by law enforcement officers, child protective services, probation officers, and other people in the field. Add to this to the unfortunate reality that Restraining Orders are sometimes misused by those they are mean to protect. Even if not anywhere near the majority of cases, claimed victims sometimes proactively use these Stay Away Orders to illegitimately get the restricted party arrested or otherwise benefit themselves beyond the intent of the issuance.

With the above in mind, this blog entry briefly addresses the bare bones pleading requirement for misdemeanor Criminal Contempt in the Second Degree, New York Penal Law 215.50.

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Whether advocating for a complainant in a criminal prosecution or a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit, Child Victims Act attorneys know that sex abuse cases involving children are some of the most disturbing and difficult legal matters they can handle even if the victim of these acts are now adults. Fortunately, however, with the passage and enactment of New York’s Child Victims Act and its year-long “look back” period and expansion of time frames allowing for the commencement of either a civil or criminal action, victims of sexual abuse and molestation can move one step closer to holding their abusers accountable up and down the state from New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley to Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo. While prosecutors can pursue felony charges against an alleged offender years after victimization and until a complainant is 28 years old, those who seek their victimizer’s accountability and financial liability, have a different set of rules to follow. Some of these rules and frequently asked questions about the statute are addressed below.

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Commencing at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2020, New York Bail Reform, as it is commonly referred, takes discretion and authority from both judges and prosecutors and shifts power to far more strict and specifically outlined statutory guidelines. Codified throughout New York Criminal Procedure Law 500, a judge’s ability to set bail in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars at the request of the District Attorney is limited and replaced with legislated standards. In fact, the language of CPL 510.10(1) is quite clear. “The court shall release the principal pending trial on the principal’s own recognizance, unless it is demonstrated and the court makes an individualized determination that the principal poses a risk of flight to avoid prosecution. If such a finding is made, the court must select the least restrictive alternative and condition or conditions that will reasonably assure the principal’s return to court.”

Although this blog entry is no substitute for understanding bail or the advocacy of your criminal lawyer at your arraignment, the following provides some basic principles and provisions that now govern the criminal justice system.

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A long time coming in the minds and hearts of many a child advocate, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the “Raise the Age” legislation into law this past April. As a result, juveniles, kids, youth, children, or simply boys and girls aged 16 and 17 will, depending on the crimes, find themselves prosecuted in New York’s Family Courts in lieu of New York’s Criminal Courts. More specifically, commencing October 1, 2018 for sixteen-year olds and October 1, 2019 for seventeen-year olds, the vast majority of arrests and criminal cases will be heard before a Family Court Judge from the inception of the criminal case or after being transferred from the “regular” or “adult” Criminal Court’s Youth Court Part.

Not a full examination of the pending change in the New York juvenile justice system, the following provides value insight that can be further examined with your New York criminal lawyer or juvenile defense attorney.

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Raise the Age legislation, codified in part in CPL Article 722, has brought New York more in line with the majority of the nation in dealing with criminal charges and accusations against certain teenagers. The legislation was also largely a compromise between law enforcement and the proponents of these kinds of sweeping laws. The result, which sought to create a system where 16 and 17 year olds could still be prosecuted as adults in certain situations, is a complex system that leaves a healthy amount of grey area for juvenile and adolescent defense lawyers, courts and District Attorneys to interpret. Much of this is due to the creation of an entirely new class of offender – the “adolescent offender.” CPL 1.20(44) defines such a person as one charged with a felony committed on or after October 1, 2018 when he or she was sixteen years of age or on or after October 1, 2019, when he or she was seventeen years of age. When a person in this classification is charged with a felony, their case first goes to an adult Criminal Court where it remains, just as it always has, or, subject to various rules on removal out of the adult criminal justice system, to Family Court. These rules depend in large part on the particular crime with which the adolescent offender is charged as well as the facts and circumstances of the underlying conduct. Other rules aside, and the subject of this blog, if and when law enforcement can establish “extraordinary circumstances” as prescribed by CPL 722.23(1)(d), prosecutors can prevent a judge from transferring an adolescent offender’s case from an adult Criminal Court to a youth oriented Family Court thereby challenging the principles of treating children different than their adult counterparts.

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