Opinion
2003-502 NCR.
Decided April 28, 2004.
Appeal by the People from an order of the District Court, Nassau County (L. Ruskin, J.), dated March 3, 2003, dismissing the accusatory instruments.
Order unanimously reversed on the law, accusatory instruments reinstated and matter remanded to the court below for all further proceedings thereon.
PRESENT: McCABE, P.J., RUDOLPH and ANGIOLILLO, JJ
Trial courts have no statutory or inherent authority to dismiss a criminal proceeding for failure to prosecute ( Matter of Morgenthau v. Roberts, 65 NY2d 749, 752; People v. Douglass, 60 NY2d 194, 206; People v. Guzman, 168 AD2d 154, 157; People v. Gambino, NYLJ, Mar. 20, 2002 [App Term, 9th 10th Jud Dists]), here based upon the prosecutor's 25-minute delay in appearing for a calendar call. Moreover, the order from which the People appeal reveals that the court did not act to vindicate defendant's statutory or constitutional right to the expeditious prosecution of the instant charges but to sanction the People for their alleged derelictions in unrelated matters ( see People v. Paredes, No. 2003-504 N CR [decided herewith]). In our view, the public interest in the resolution of criminal proceedings upon the application of substantive law superseded the court's interest in venting its exasperation, however justified, with prosecutors' dilatory behavior for which appropriate, alternative remedies are available.