CPL Session 1 Flashcards
(19 cards)
According to the Criminal Procedure Law, by definition, a criminal action is commenced when which of the following is filed with a criminal court?
Accusatory Instrument
Detective Mullins suspects that Roger committed a residential burglary and stored the proceeds in a storage facility. Detective Mullins filed an application for a search warrant in the Local Criminal Court of the Town where the storage facility is located. When Detective Mullins filed his application for a search warrant, he commenced a:
CRIMINAL PROCEEDING means any proceeding which occurs in a criminal court and is related to a prospective, pending, or completed CRIMINAL ACTION.
Which of the following is not a defined term in the Criminal Procedure Law?
A CRIMINAL PROSECUTION, although not specifically defined in Section 1.20 of the Criminal Procedure Law, is commenced upon the filing of and INFORMATION or an INDICTMENT, or another statutory triggering event involving another kind of filed ACCUSATORY INSTRUMENT. But, a FELONY COMPLAINT can NEVER commence the CRIMINAL PROSECTION because the Local Criminal Court does not have trial jurisdiction over felonies.
Which of the following is not a Local Criminal Court ACCUSATORY INSTRUMENT?
There are EXACTYLY 2 Superior Court Accusatory Instruments – the Indictment and the Superior Court Information.
How many Local Criminal Court Accusatory Instruments exist in the Criminal Procedure Law?
Felony Complain, Misdemeanor Complaint, Simplified Information, Prosecutor’s Information and Information.
According to the Criminal Procedure Law, each of the following is a crime, EXCEPT:
A PETTY OFFENSE can be a Violation or a Traffic Infraction and it is not a crime.
Tondelayo, age 14, committed an Assault in the First Degree. She was arrested, brought to the appropriate criminal court and charged as a?
Juvenile Offender
Sheriffs are statutorily Police Officers if they work:
Only Sheriffs who work outside of N.Y.C. are Police Officers.
List the local criminal courts and list the superior courts:
City, Town and Village Courts are LOCAL CRIMINAL COURTS and as such they DO NOT have trial jurisdiction over felonies. Only Superior Courts – Supreme and County – have trial jurisdiction over felonies.
Which Local Criminal Court Accusatory Instruments can, on its face, always commence both the criminal action and the criminal prosecution?
INFORMATION. It’s the only one that can do both without exception.
Roger abducts Tondelayo by tying her up, placing her in the trunk of his car and driving her from Suffolk County, through seven other counties and ultimately to Albany County where he is pulled over for speeding. Officer Stumpy hears Tondelayo crying in the trunk and he places Roger under arrest and frees Tondelayo from the trunk and her bindings. Officer Stumpy should know that Roger can be charged with Kidnapping in which County?
Suffolk, Albany or any other County the vehicle passed through.
See Criminal Procedure Law Article 20 – Geographical Jurisdiction of Offenses.
The distance between two Towns in which there is shared jurisdiction by the Local Criminal Courts of those two Towns is?
100 Yards applies to Towns, etc. and it is 500 Yards between Counties.
Roger commits a robbery in Connecticut and flees in his car into New York State where he is involved in a fatal motor vehicle accident that results in the death of an innocent bystander. Had Roger committed the robbery inside of New York he would be charge with both Robbery and Felony Murder. Because Roger committed the robbery in Connecticut and the death occurred in New York, Roger can be prosecuted,
In New York for the Felony Murder and in Connecticut for the Robbery.
The underlying felony does not have to be committed in New York for the felony murder charge to be brought inside of New York.
Tondelayo stole Dawn’s credit card and used it to order shoes online in County X. Tondealyo had the shoes delivered to Roger’s house in County Y. Tondelayo picked up the shoes from Roger’s house and brought them to her home in County Z. According to Article 20 of the Criminal Procedure Law, Tondelayo can be prosecuted for using the stolen credit card in,
Counties X, Y, and Z.
County where the order is placed, county where the property is delivered or the county where the property is stored. The prosecution can only take place in one of these counties.
Officer Mullins responds to a report of a dead body that washed up onto a beach. When Officer Mullins arrives he sees the decapitated body of a woman that had apparently been in the water for a significant period of time. When Sergeant Sullivan arrives, he tells Officer Mullins that this is a homicide case and that the County where the body was found has jurisdiction over the homicide investigation. Sergeant Sullivan’s statement to Officer Mullins was,
correct because whether or not she was killed in that County, part of her body was found in it.
When a dead human body, or any part of it, is found in a jurisdiction, that jurisdiction covers the homicide investigation.
Sergeant Mullins discovers that Detective Tirri stole cash money in the amount of $200 from inside an apartment during the execution of a Search Warrant on January 1 in the same year Sergeant Mullins made the discovery. Sergeant Mullins knows that Detective Tirri plans to retire on December 1 of the same year. How long after Detective Tirri retires will Sergeant Mullins have to charge Detective Tirri with Petit Larceny?
At most five years from the date in which Detective Tirri retires.
Public servant statute of limitations has several concepts:
A) Can prosecute as long as he remains public servant;
B) Can prosecute up until 5 years after he ceases being a public servant;
C) BUT IN NO EVENT may the originally limited period (5 for felony, 2 for misdemeanor, 1 for petty offense) be extended by MORE THAN 5 YEARS.
Roger is on trial for Burglary and he wants to call Tondelayo as an alibi witness to testify that he, Roger, was at Tondelayo’s home in California when the crime he is charged with was committed. Tondelayo has agreed to testify at Roger’s trial on the condition that Roger pay for her airfare and hotel costs associated with her travel to New York to testify on Roger’s behalf. Roger agrees and buys Tondelayo a roundtrip airline ticket, books her a room at the Ritz Carlton and leaves in an envelope for Tondelayo at the hotel’s front desk, $500 for food, drink and other spending money. When the Assistant District Attorney learns these facts, he tells the Judge in Roger’s case that he intends to file a Bribing a Witness Charge against Roger. The Judge’s accurate response is to state that:
Roger should not be charged for paying the expenses of a witness in his trial
It is not a crime to pay the expenses of a witness. Also, Bribing a Witness is a Class D Felony that has a 5 year statute of limitations.
Officer Stumpy arrives at the precinct and tells Sgt. Mullins that he arrested Roger for a reckless driving incident that occurred three years ago. Sgt. Mullins orders the officer to immediately release Roger from custody Sgt. Mullins directive to the Officer was:
Improper because the statute of limitations may have suspended for a period of time when Roger lived outside of NYS.
Statute of limitations is “Tolled” (stops running) when the wanted person:
- leaves the state for a continuous period
OR
Hides out etc. in the state and can’t be found through reasonable investigative efforts
BUT,
Maximum tolling is not more than 5 years
