PEOPLE v. FLORES (2018)

Court of Appeals of New York.

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Appellant, v. Alex FLORES, Lucio Ramirez, Benigno Aguilar and Emmanuel Flores, Respondents.

No. 141

Decided: December 13, 2018

David M. Hoovler, District Attorney, Goshen (Robert H. Middlemiss and Andrew R. Kass of counsel), for appellant. Leonard J. Levenson, New York City, for respondents.

OPINION OF THE COURT

The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed. The trial court committed reversible error by empaneling an anonymous jury. Assuming that trial courts may, under certain circumstances, anonymize jurors, here County Court acted without any factual predicate for the extraordinary procedure. Indeed, the trial court expressly based its decision to empanel an anonymous jury on anecdotal accounts from jurors in unrelated cases and, then, exacerbated the error by taking “no steps to lessen the potential prejudice” to defendants (153 A.D.3d 182, 191, 62 N.Y.S.3d 68).

Order affirmed, in a memorandum.

MEMORANDUM.

Chief Judge DiFiore and Judges Rivera, Stein, Fahey, Garcia, Wilson and Feinman concur.

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