Prosecutors in Brooklyn can present a domestic violence complainant's first grand jury testimony to a second grand jury, a judge has ruled. Kareem Copney's ex-girlfriend initially testified against him, but when the first indictment was dismissed because of a violation of Copney's right to testify before the grand jury, the woman stopped cooperating.
Noting that before she became unavailable Copney called the woman more than 100 times while incarcerated at Riker's Island, prosecutors asked permission from Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew D'Emic (See Profile) to let them use her initial testimony with a second grand jury. The prosecution based its arguments on the doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing, which says individuals who successfully make a prospective witness unavailable forfeit their objection to the admission of hearsay statements made by the unavailable witness.
