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People v. Vera

Court of Appeals of the State of New York
May 31, 1979
392 N.E.2d 562 (N.Y. 1979)

Opinion

Argued April 26, 1979

Decided May 31, 1979

Appeal from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the Second Judicial Department, M. MICHAEL POTOKER, J.

Edwin Ira Schulman for appellant.

Eugene Gold, District Attorney (Reina Barcan of counsel), for respondent.


MEMORANDUM.

The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed and the indictment dismissed.

It may be, as the District Attorney alleges in his brief, that the State and Federal indictments were the result of completely separate and independent investigations and that the Federal authorities were not informed of the sale which formed the basis of the State indictment. But whether the sale was alleged, proven or even known to the Federal authorities is of no consequence. If the sale was not actually a part of the Federal prosecutor's case it was nevertheless an integral part of the crime to which the defendant pleaded because "conspiracy is an embracive crime. It embraces all of the overt acts and substantive crimes in the persisting criminal enterprise" (People v Abbamonte, 43 N.Y.2d 74, 85). Thus the defendant's conviction in Federal court for conspiracy to distribute cocaine precludes subsequent prosecution in this State for the sale which concededly was part of the conspiracy (CPL 40.20; People v Abbamonte, supra).

Chief Judge COOKE and Judges JASEN, GABRIELLI, JONES, WACHTLER and FUCHSBERG concur in memorandum.

Order reversed, etc.


Summaries of

People v. Vera

Court of Appeals of the State of New York
May 31, 1979
392 N.E.2d 562 (N.Y. 1979)
Case details for

People v. Vera

Case Details

Full title:THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. SAMUEL VERA, Appellant

Court:Court of Appeals of the State of New York

Date published: May 31, 1979

Citations

392 N.E.2d 562 (N.Y. 1979)
392 N.E.2d 562
418 N.Y.S.2d 575

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