State's highest court sides with Suffolk DA in misdemeanor case testing prosecution's duty to turn over evidence to defense
J5T0NR The New York State Court of Appeals in Albany, New York. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo/Jon Bilous / Alamy Stock Photo
New York State's highest court has sided with the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office on a legal issue that prevented it in 2022 from prosecuting a Suffolk teenager on misdemeanor charges after he allegedly got drunk, got stuck in a toddler's swing and then tried to escape in a police car.
In a 5-2 decision, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed the reinstatement of criminal charges against Henry Fuentes, whose case was dismissed after the prosecution was cited for not disclosing the arresting officer's Internal Affairs file to Fuentes' defense in a timely fashion.
In ruling for the Suffolk DA's office, the court said prosecutors had not turned over the records under the state's pretrial court discovery rules, which were amended in recent years. But the court rejected the defense argument that they contained material that could have been used to impeach the officer's credibility.
"While we are heartened by this meritorious appeal, the near-four-year pathway of a misdemeanor prosecution to the highest court in the state over a mind-numbing technical attack just shows how the state’s 2020 so-called discovery ‘reforms’ have tied up valuable prosecution resources and unleashed destabilizing chaos on our criminal justice system," Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a statement.
"The fact that the state’s prosecutors are compelled to engage in clerical advocacy more than legal advocacy against a flood of never-ending ‘gotcha’ technicalities, enabled by our state government, is nothing short of a public safety tragedy."
Fuentes' lawyer could not be reached for comment.
According to the decision, Fuentes, then a teen, was unable to extricate himself from a toddler swing behind an abandoned house after drinking tequila and called 911 for help in 2021. Suffolk County Police Officer Danielle Congedo responded and saw Fuentes toss a bottle of Patron into bushes, the ruling said, adding that Fuentes appeared intoxicated.
"Officer Congedo extracted him from the swing and Mr. Fuentes retrieved the tequila. Officer Congedo offered to call an ambulance, Mr. Fuentes declined, but accepted a ride home from her, with the bottle of tequila in the trunk of the patrol car. Upon arriving home, Mr. Fuentes asked for the tequila; Officer Congedo refused, and Mr. Fuentes pushed her into her car, took her keys and jumped into the driver's seat," the decision said.
Congedo called for backup and ultimately, Fuentes was removed from the car and arrested.
The case against Fuentes was dismissed in 2022 by a Suffolk County District Court judge who said the prosecution failed to abide by pretrial discovery obligations to disclose the Internal Affairs Bureau report that "exonerated" the arresting officer of misconduct in another case.
The defense had found a past federal civil suit against Congedo, which alleged she had conducted an illegal search. The prosecution disclosed the suit, but didn't produce her Internal Affairs file until the defense requested it, about five months later.
The defense filed a motion to dismiss, arguing the prosecution had violated Fuentes' constitutional rights by withholding the report. The presiding judge agreed.
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
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