Court Opinion

ID: 9782849
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 19:24:12.631275+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:35:15.292018
License: Public Domain

Pigott, J.
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent because, in my view, the People’s perfectly logical withdrawal of this case from a deadlocked grand jury is not the functional equivalent of a dismissal. Therefore, the People were not required to obtain court authorization before re-presentment of the case to another grand jury.
After the People presented their case against defendant to a grand jury, it turned out that the grand jury was unable to garner the 12 votes needed to either indict defendant or dismiss the charges. Despite the People answering additional questions, a rereading of certain testimony and its being instructed a second time, the grand jury remained deadlocked, and eventually returned a vote of “no affirmative action.” Since no action was taken, the People were clearly within their right to withdraw the case and present it to a second grand jury. This is what they did, and defendant was subsequently indicted on three drug-related offenses.
Defendant’s argument that the grand jury’s finding of “no affirmative action” was tantamount to dismissal finds no support in the law; after all, the grand jury did not dismiss the charges. In my view, Supreme Court and the Appellate Division were correct in their reliance on our decision in People v Aarons (2 NY3d 547 [2004]), holding that the grand jury’s inability to obtain sufficient votes either to indict or dismiss did not constitute a dismissal and, therefore, court approval was unnecessary before the People’s re-presentment to another grand jury.
CPL 190.60 permits a grand jury to choose among five possible dispositions: it may indict, direct the district attorney to file a prosecutor’s information with a local criminal court, direct the district attorney to file a request for removal to the family court, dismiss the charge before it, as provided in section 190.75, or submit a report (see CPL 190.60 [l]-[5] [emphasis supplied]). *563When a grand jury dismisses a charge pursuant to CPL 190.75, it is required to “file its finding of dismissal with the court by which it was impaneled” (CPL 190.75 [1]), and, in such a circumstance, that charge “may not again be submitted to a grand jury unless the court in its discretion authorizes or directs the people to resubmit such charge to the same or another grand jury” (CPL 190.75 [3]).
The majority’s conclusion that the People’s withdrawal of their case from the first grand jury was tantamount to a dismissal is simply not found in the law. To be sure, although an “inconclusive vote” is an indication of a grand jury’s “reluctance to indict” (majority op at 560), such an “inconclusive vote” is just as equally indicative of a reluctance to dismiss. The majority’s holding reduces the number of votes to dismiss to 11 despite the statute requiring 12. Assuming the People secure court authorization to resubmit, should the second proceeding result in an inconclusive result due to any of many factors, including failure to muster a quorum for example, the matter “may not again be submitted to a grand jury” (CPL 190.75 [3]). The target of the presentation will never be indicted for those crimes and the matter will be dismissed. The statute does not contemplate such a draconian consequence.
In my view, our decision in Aarons is controlling. There we held that, “in order to dismiss a charge, there must be a formal vote of the grand jury and 12 of its members must concur in that result” (Aarons, 2 NY3d at 549; see CPL 190.25 [1] [stating that grand jury proceedings are not valid unless there is a quorum of 16 members and “every . . . affirmative official action or decision” has the concurrence of 12 members]). Our rationale in Aarons is applicable here, namely, that the language of CPL 190.60 (4) and 190.75 plainly indicates that “the dismissal of a charge is for the grand jury to decide as part of its deliberations,” and, therefore, “a dismissal cannot occur absent the grand jury’s actual conclusion that a dismissal is warranted” (id. at 551 [emphasis supplied]). It therefore stands to reason that “a concurrence of 12 jurors is necessary to effectuate a dismissal” (id. at 552).
There is no language in CPL 190.60 or 190.75 from which it can be inferred that the Legislature intended that a grand jury’s inability to take any action pursuant to CPL 190.60 constitutes a dismissal by default. Indeed, CPL 190.75 (l)’s directive that the grand jury foreman file the grand jury’s finding of dismissal signifies that dismissal is a decision that must be made *564affirmatively by the grand jury, and cannot be inferred by the grand jury’s inability to reach a decision.
Nor is our decision in People v Wilkins (68 NY2d 269 [1986]) controlling. There we held that the People’s unilateral withdrawal of a case from the first grand jury after presentation of evidence, but before permitting it to vote, was equivalent to a dismissal, requiring the People to obtain court authorization before resubmission to the second grand jury (see id. at 271). We rejected the People’s argument that they had the inherent authority to withdraw matters from the grand jury unilaterally in such circumstances, noting that such authority, if abused, would allow the People to withdraw from grand jury consideration all but the simplest cases, thereby enabling the People to resubmit them “after further preparation or a more compliant Grand Jury is impaneled” (id. at 275).
The concerns we expressed in Wilkins are absent here. Unlike Wilkins, the People submitted their case to a vote. It was not until the grand jury was unable to garner 12 votes to take any action authorized pursuant to CPL 190.60 that the People withdrew the case. There is no suggestion that the People withdrew the case in order to find a more compliant grand jury. It is evident that the first grand jury, having been unable to reach a decision after two attempts, was deadlocked. At that point, there being no directive in the statutory scheme as to what procedure the People should follow, the People did the logical thing and presented the matter to a second grand jury.
Accordingly, I would affirm the order of the Appellate Division.
Judges Ciparick, Graffeo and Jones concur with Chief Judge Lippman; Judge Pigott dissents and votes to affirm in a separate opinion in which Judges Read and Smith concur.
Order reversed, etc.