Opinion
July 28, 1994
Appeal from the Family Court, New York County (Mary E. Bednar, J.).
To be sufficient on its face, a juvenile delinquency petition must contain non-hearsay allegations of the factual part of the petition or of any supporting depositions that establish, if true, every element of each crime charged and the accused's commission thereof (Family Ct Act § 311.2). A petition which does not substantially conform to the requirements of section 311.2 or of section 311.1 is defective and subject to dismissal (Family Ct Act § 315.1 [a]; [2]; Matter of Rodney J., 83 N.Y.2d 503, 507). It is thus required that the petition and supporting depositions contain non-hearsay allegations establishing a prima facie case of delinquency (Matter of Rodney J., supra; Matter of Jahron S., 79 N.Y.2d 632, 639). The omission of non-hearsay allegations concerning any element of the offenses charged renders the petition legally insufficient (Matter of Rodney J., supra).
In the instant case the prosecution was required, in order to make a prima facie case of sale or possession of cocaine, to show, with non-hearsay material, that the substance in question was indeed cocaine. It did not do so. The arresting officer's deposition that he saw the appellant sell cocaine was in itself insufficient to make that prima facie case (Matter of Jahron S., supra, at 639). And the laboratory report does not attest to any personal, non-hearsay knowledge of the identity of the substance analyzed, since it does not state that it was signed by the person who analyzed it (Matter of Rodney J., supra).
Concur — Rosenberger, J.P., Ellerin, Ross, Nardelli and Williams, JJ.