| People v Fleming |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 00258 [58 AD3d 527] |
| January 20, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Delroy Fleming, Appellant. |
—[*1] Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Robert R. Sandusky, III of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Ira R. Globerman, J.), rendered April 8, 2003, asamended April 20, 2006, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of acontrolled substance in the first degree, sentencing him to a term of eight years, unanimouslyreversed, on the law, and the matter remanded for a new trial.
Defendant did not receive effective assistance of counsel. The existing record establishesthat trial counsel's overall performance was prejudicially deficient (see People v Droz,39 NY2d 457 [1976]). Counsel demonstrated her lack of basic comprehension of criminal lawand procedure through her persistent frivolous conduct at multiple stages of the proceeding,including, among other things, pretrial motion practice, a purported interlocutory appeal, thesuppression hearing, requests for jury instructions, posttrial motions and sentencing. Counsel'swoeful lack of knowledge approached the traditional "farce and a mockery of justice" standard(see People v Tomaselli, 7 NY2d 350, 353-354 [1960]). This case presented an issue ofwhether defendant was aware of the illicit contents of a package he accepted in a controlledpostal delivery. Counsel completely and prejudicially misunderstood and mishandled this issue,and defendant was deprived of a fair trial as a result. We find counsel's unfamiliarity with the[*2]sentencing parameters for defendant's crime particularlytroubling in view of the fact that before trial defendant received a beneficial plea offer of three tonine years. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Friedman, Buckley, Acosta and Freedman, JJ.