Criminal justice observers have expressed concern about the number of reversals in recent years coming out of one Queens courtroom handling many of the evidence suppression hearings for the Supreme Court.

Combined with other issues raised recently about the criminal justice system in Queens, they express worry that the spate of reversed suppression decisions, sometimes for reasons that left appellate judges apparently scratching their heads, showcase an insular system unfairly tilted against defendants who enter it.

The reversal pattern can be traced to 2013, when the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division for the Second Department reversed a trial judge's refusal to suppress witness testimony identifying a defendant based on an overly suggestive police lineup. The Second Department in that decision overturned the conviction and required a new trial.