New York Appellate Division Reports
PEOPLE v. BRINSON, 9743 [1st Dept 1-4-2007] 2007 NY Slip Op
00046 The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v.
Neal Brinson, Defendant-Appellant. 9743. Appellate
Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First
Department. Decided on January 4, 2007.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (John A. Barone, J.),
rendered January 11, 2005, convicting defendant, after a
jury trial, of reckless endangerment in the first degree
and resisting arrest, and sentencing him, as a second
felony offender, to concurrent terms of 2 1/2; to 5 years
and 1 year, respectively, unanimously modified, on the law
and the facts, to the extent of reducing the reckless
endangerment conviction to reckless endangerment in the
second degree and reducing the sentence on that conviction
to a term of 1 year, and otherwise affirmed.
Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (David Crow
of counsel), and Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York (Namita
Wahi of counsel), for appellant.
Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Jennifer
Marinaccio of counsel), for respondent.
TOM, J.P., MARLOW, WILLIAMS, CATTERSON, MALONE, JJ.
The verdict convicting defendant of reckless endangerment
in the first degree was based on legally insufficient
evidence and was against the weight of the evidence.
Defendant’s actions of leading the police on a brief
high-speed chase, half of which occurred on an empty street,
and then, upon encountering heavy traffic, trying to force
his way through the traffic at a slow rate of speed, while
beeping his horn and flashing his high beams, failed to
evince a depraved indifference to human life, as required
for a conviction of reckless endangerment in the first
degree (see Penal Law § 120.25; People v Feingold, 7
NY3d 288 [2006]; People v France, 57 AD2d 432 [1977]).
However, we do find that the evidence establishes that
defendant acted recklessly, and that his actions “create[d]
a substantial risk of serious physical injury” to other
drivers (Penal Law § 120.20).