Opinion ID: 2482979
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: People v Ortega

Text: Complainant, a 25-year-old man, encountered defendant outside a bodega in Washington Heights at about 4:30 A.M. on July 14, 2007. Although complainant initially asked defendant to purchase marijuana for him, complainant testified that defendant and another man escorted him, at gunpoint, to a nearby building where they forced him to smoke crack cocaine from a glass pipe. The men also allegedly forced him to give them the PIN numbers to his bank cards. Subject to threats that he or his family would be hurt if he did not cooperate, complainant was allegedly forced to withdraw money from his bank accounts on several occasions over the course of the morning. Complainant was allegedly taken back to the nearby building and was again forced to smoke crack between the additional trips to obtain cash. Complainant was eventually able to escape his captors shortly after noon that day. When he returned home, he was shaking, crying and incoherent. Complainant was taken to the hospital, where he told medical staff that he was forced to smoke [a] white substance from [a] pipe. Later that night, defendant was arrested after being pulled over for an unrelated traffic offense. He was in possession of a small amount of crack, as well as complainant's bank cards, identification cards and cell phone. Defendant's version of events differed significantly from complainant's. Defendant essentially testified that complainant voluntarily smoked crack with him and that complainant withdrew the money from his bank accounts of his own volition. Defendant also explained that complainant had willingly handed over his personal property and left it in defendant's possession. Defendant was convicted of two counts of criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree. The Appellate Division affirmed, finding that even if the court should have redacted the statements at issue from complainant's hospital records, any error was harmless (64 AD3d 422 [1st Dept 2009]). A Judge of this Court granted defendant leave to appeal, and we now affirm.