Case ID: misc_59/html/0371-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Crain, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The People of the State of New York, Plaintiff, v. Edward M. Willis, Defendant.
    (Court of General Sessions of the Peace in and for the City and County of New York,
    May, 1908.)
    Indictment — Necessity of indictment — Eight to have misdemeanor certified for prosecution by indictment.
    Where an officer of a municipal police force is charged with the commission of a misdemeanor and the conviction might result in the forfeiture of his position in the police department and deprive him of his right to payments from the police pension fund, the consequences of a conviction are exceptional and the case is one of public interest; and a certificate, under subdivision 2 of section 1409 of the Greater New York charter, that it is reasonable that the" charge against him should be prosecuted by indictment, is proper.
    Application for a certificate that it is reasonable that the charge against the defendant be prosecuted by indictment.
    
      Henry J. Goldsmith, for motion.
    Cornelius J. Sullivan, opposed.
   Crain, J.

This is an application for a certificate, under subdivision 2 of section 1409 of the Greater Hew York charter, that it is reasonable that the charge against the defendant should be prosecuted by indictment. The certificate is applied for for the purpose of divesting the Court of Special Sessions of jurisdiction to hear and determine the charge against the defendant. The defendant is charged with the commission of a misdemeanor, to wit, a violation of section 289 of the Penal Code. The defendant is an officer of the municipal police force. As such he took, upon his appointment, the constitutional oath to refrain from violating the laws of the State of Hew York; and' a conviction upon the charge might result in the forfeiture of his position in the police department. As a pólice officer he will become entitled, in certain contingencies, to payments from the police pension fund. The consequences of a conviction, therefore, in his case are exceptional. It is, moreover, a matter of public interest' that the trial of a police officer upon a charge as serious as that made against the defendant should be attended with that publicity which attaches to cases tried in this court before a jury.

The other features of the case, moreover, bring it within the recent decision of Judge Swan, in the case of The People v. Frederick H. Goldsmith. . The granting of the certificate appears reasonable within the decision of People v. Butts, 121 App. Div. 226, and People v. Eosenberg, 59 Mise. Eep. 342.

Application granted.