Hearsay Faulted but Panel Finds Harmless Error
Despite a limiting instruction, a police sergeant should not have been allowed to testify as to the statements made by three people who had purchased drugs from a defendant just before police "stormed the block," the First Department found, although the defendant's guilt was "overwhelmingly proved" by other evidence.
January 28, 2015 at 05:21 AM
4 minute read
While the use of hearsay testimony in a drug bust case was faulted as a violation of the Confrontation Clause, a panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, also found it was “harmless error.”
Jorge Beato was convicted of selling crack cocaine in an “observation sale case” in 2011, the panel said.
The trial judge allowed a police sergeant to testify as to the statements made by three persons who had purchased drugs from Beato and two accomplices just before police “stormed the block” and arrested Beato and his two companions.
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