A judge did not conduct “a sufficiently searching inquiry” of a defendant who wanted to represent himself in a criminal case, a Brooklyn appeals panel has ruled as it called for a retrial. The trial judge, then-Nassau County Court Judge John Kase, “failed to conduct a sufficiently searching inquiry of the defendant to be reasonably certain that he understood the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation,” the Appellate Division, Second Department, said in People v. Bristol, 2009-07952.
The unsigned ruling stems from Marcel Bristol’s conviction on second- and third-degree grand larceny. Although the panel found Bristol’s guilty verdict was not against the weight of the evidence, it said his waiver of his right to counsel was “ineffective.”
