A Brooklyn appellate panel has reversed a burglary conviction, finding that the trial judge and a prosecutor crippled the defense case by preventing the accused from offering evidence that the elderly victim, who may have been suffering from dementia, had repeatedly identified someone else as her assailant and never once implicated the defendant.
In an opinion critical of both Supreme Court Justice Joel Goldberg (See Profile) and the Brooklyn prosecutor, Thomas McManus, the Appellate Division, Second Department, said a litany of errors deprived Eugene Thompson of his constitutional right to defend himself.
