New York State Appellate Division

RECORDS AND BRIEFS

Q. You are presently under arrest under a warrant charging you with forgery in Brooklyn, is that right?

A. I guess so.

Q. You guess so?

A. Well, I’m here.

[Flurry of objections.]

Q. What do you mean when you say, “I’m here”?

A. Well, I didn’t mean anything by it as far as that goes.

Q. Well as a matter of fact where were you arrested?

[More objections.]

[Counsel for accused police officer]: Your Honor, it is not a question which will tend to incriminate or degrade him.

[Presiding]: If it was outside the state you know as well as I do, that flight is an indication of guilt.

[Counsel for accused police officer]: If Your Honor please, if he’s arrested outside the city, he could be here for a perfectly valid reason, I don’t say he fled, maybe he says it, I don’t say it.

[Presiding]: I don’t see how it is material as why he was—where he was arrested?

[Counsel for accused police officer]: As to why he’s brought back here, he is testifying here for a particular purpose, I want to show the purpose.

…

Q. You were arrested in California, weren’t you?

[Objections, rulings.]

[Presiding]: Anything that pertains to the particular act, flight after the commission of a crime is an indication of guilt and if the witness—I’m sorry [Counselor], you and I disagree, I will not order him to answer.

[Objections, rulings.]

[Counsel for accused police officer]: I say the question as to whether he called the State of New York to bring—that he was in California—to come back to New York, is not tending to incriminate or degrade him. Voluntary submission to arrest doesn’t tend to incriminate or degrade you.

[Presiding]: I have already ruled on it.

[Counsel for accused police officer]: On what?

[Presiding]: I refuse to direct him to answer the question.