People v. BowenPeople v. Bowen
| People v Bowen |
| Decided on July 16, 2020 |
| Appellate Division, Third Department |
| Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
| This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports. |
Decided and Entered: July 16, 2020
109700
v
Aaron G. Bowen, Appellant.
Calendar Date: June 8, 2020
Before: Egan Jr., J.P., Lynch, Clark, Pritzker and Reynolds Fitzgerald, JJ.
Jeffrey R. Parry, Oneida, for appellant.
Joseph G. Fazzary, District Attorney, Watkins Glen (John C. Tunney of counsel), for respondent.
Pritzker, J.
Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Schuyler County (Morris, J.), rendered July 20, 2017, convicting defendant following a nonjury trial of the crimes of rape in the first degree, criminal sexual act in the first degree and unlawfully dealing with a child in the first degree.
Defendant was charged by indictment with one count each of rape in the first degree, criminal sexual act in the first degree and unlawfully dealing with a child in the first degree. The charges arose after defendant, Lyle Beebe and Jeffrey Forney met an 18-year-old female (hereinafter the victim) and brought her to Forney's house, where they all drank alcohol. The next morning, the victim awoke in the hospital with no recollection of most of the prior night. A joint jury trial of defendant and Forney ended in a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury. Thereafter, defendant's matter was severed from Forney's and defendant waived his right to a jury trial. At his bench trial, the parties stipulated into evidence the transcript and exhibits from the jury trial, with the understanding that County Court would "disregard all evidence which would be admissible solely against defendant Forney." The parties made opening statements, summations and also had the opportunity to present further proof, which defendant chose to do by calling two witnesses to testify. The court found defendant guilty as charged and sentenced him to concurrent prison terms of eight years, followed by seven years of postrelease supervision, on his convictions for rape in the first degree and criminal sexual act in the first degree and to a concurrent one-year term of incarceration on his conviction for unlawfully dealing with a child in the first degree. Defendant appeals.
Defendant contends that County Court erred by failing to order a trial de novo following the mistrial and that it was "impermissible" for County Court to allow him to stipulate to the admission of the January 2017 trial testimony and evidence. This argument is without legal foundation. In fact, the Court of Appeals has held that, "[i]n a criminal cause . . . when [a] defendant[] ha[s] validly waived a jury, the evidence can be offered in such form as the parties agree to with the [j]udge's consent" (Matter of Nolan v Court of Gen. Sessions of County of N.Y.,
We turn now to defendant's claims that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel. "To establish a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant is required to demonstrate that he or she was not provided meaningful representation and that there is an absence of strategic or other legitimate explanations for counsel's allegedly deficient conduct" (People v Seecoomar,
Defendant also argues that defense counsel was ineffective by agreeing to forgo objections during the People's summation in the first trial. This argument is misplaced inasmuch as the opening statements and summations from the first trial were not considered by County Court. Indeed, both parties made opening statements and summations during the bench trial and no such agreement to forgo objections was made. Viewing the totality of counsel's representation, "without second-guessing counsel or assessing his performance with the clarity of hindsight," we find that defendant received meaningful representation (People v Olson,
Egan Jr., J.P., Lynch, Clark and Reynolds Fitzgerald, JJ., concur.
ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.