Save some for the rest of us

People v Carter, 2006 NY Slip Op 05448 [available here]

Even while waging an (ultimately) unsuccesful campaign for mayor of Rochester, defense attorney John Parrinello managed to get the Fourth Department to reverse his client's conviction for various counts of Sodomy--on four separate legal grounds. Way to hog the issues. The Fourth Department agreed with Mr. Parrinello that, 1) the trial court erred in refusing to allow Mr. Parrinello to present "testimony concerning the reputation of the victim" where a proper foundation was laid and Parrinello agreed "to limit his direct examination of the witnesses to the general reputation of the victim in the community for truth and veracity"; 2) the trial court "also committed reversible error in allowing the People to present the testimony of a witness concerning his sexual acts with defendant" where the sex acts were consensual; 3) the prosecutor engaged in misconduct during opening argument, summation and cross-examination of defense witnesses (i.e. continually referring to defendant as a dangerous sexual predator, among other things), and; 4) the search warrant was overbroad "because it allowed the police to obtain evidence not specifically connected to the alleged crimes related to the victim." (People v Carter, 2006 NY Slip Op 05448.)

Given the Fourth Department's multiple pro-defendant reversals in the June packet, and further given this case (that contains more grounds for substantive pro-defendant reversals than usually show up in a whole term's worth of decisions), I can only conclude that either, 1) the end is near, or 2) the Fourth Department will not reverse another conviction until April, 2010.