Accelerated Judgment not availabe in criminal proceedings

Yes, this is a no fault blog that I maintain, mostly for my own amusement. I take pride in the level of scholarship set forth in this blog. I try to avoid topics that do not apply either directly or tangentially to the arena of PIP issues. This will be a rare exception.

In my daily reading of the App. Term criminal cases, I found an interesting issue that has satisfied my curiosity. Likewise, I find the outcome disturbing.

The case that is interesting is entitled: People v Manupelli (Christine), 2008 NY Slip Op 28520 (App. Term 2d Dept. 9th and 10th Jud. Dis. 2008). It says the following:

In this prosecution based on defendants' alleged violation of local ordinances requiring landfill permits and barring the diversion of rainwater onto neighboring properties, defendants moved pretrial to dismiss the accusatory instruments pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (7). The Justice Court granted the motion, concluding, in essence, that there was a legal impediment to conviction (CPL 170.30 [1] [f]), finding that defendants' proof in support of the motion established both their entitlement to an exclusion from the permit requirement and the People's inability to prove, on the facts, that defendants are legally responsible for the alleged illegal diversion of rainwater onto a neighbor's property.

Defendants' motion should have been denied. With rare exceptions (e.g. CPL 60.10), the CPLR is inapplicable to criminal proceedings (CPLR 101; CPL 1.10 [1]; People v Knobel, 94 NY2d 226, 230 [1999]; People v Crisp, 268 AD2d 247 [2000]; People v Silva, 122 AD2d 750 [1986]; see generally People ex rel. Hirschberg v Orange County Court, 271 NY 151, 155 [1936]). The authority of a criminal court to dismiss an information pursuant to a pretrial motion (see CPL 170.30) does not include a motion for accelerated judgment available to civil court litigants (see CPLR 3211, 3212), and, in any event, the court had no authority to dismiss an accusatory instrument on the ground that, in its view, the People could not produce sufficient [*2]evidence to prevail at trial (e.g. People v Asher, 16 Misc 3d 89, 91 [App Term, 9th & 10th Jud Dists 2007]). Thus, on this record, there were no grounds to dismiss the accusatory instrument upon defendants' pretrial motion (see CPL 170.30).

My thought has always been this: why is it that somebody who risks going to prison or ending up with legal impediments attendant to a criminal conviction have markedly less procedural rights than a civil litigant? That has bothered me to no end and, yet in New York, that is the rule. You need not be a criminal attorney to see how wrong this all is. Yet, this is the world we live in.

Food for thought this Christmas.