| People v Shaw |
| 2007 NY Slip Op 06735 [43 AD3d 685] |
| September 13, 2007 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Michael Shaw, Appellant. |
—[*1] Michael Shaw, appellant pro se. Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Vincent Rivellese of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Bonnie G. Wittner, J.), rendered January 3,2005, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of rape in the first degree and burglary in the secondand third degrees, and sentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to an aggregate termof 20 to 40 years, unanimously reversed, on the law, and the matter remanded for a new trial.
When defense counsel advised the court that a juror had inappropriately approached him andmade comments indicating a possible bias against the defense, the court should have grantedcounsel's request to make an inquiry of the juror with respect to her qualification (seeCPL 270.35; People v Buford, 69 NY2d 290, 299 [1987]). Under the circumstancespresented, that error is not subject to harmless error analysis (see People v Dotson, 248AD2d 1004 [1998], lv denied 92 NY2d 851 [1998]; see also People v Anderson,70 NY2d 729, 730 [1987]). Since a new trial is required based on the foregoing, we need notreach defendant's remaining arguments, including those contained in his pro se supplementalbrief. Concur—Sullivan, J.P., Buckley, Gonzalez, Sweeny and Kavanagh, JJ.