Brooklyn appellate panel reverses conviction for unlicensed driver
A Brooklyn appellate panel reversed a criminal defendant’s conviction due to the government’s failure to establish how drivers’ license suspension notices are delivered to the post office for mailing.
In a per curium — unsigned — majority opinion, three judges of the Appellate Term for the 2nd, 11th and 13th Judicial Districts ruled last month that while Brooklyn prosecutors provided a facially sufficient charge against the defendant for operating a vehicle without a license, the “interest of justice” required a reversal of the defendant’s 2011 conviction.
The defendant, Ian Scott, was convicted following a nonjury trial in November 2011. Prosecutors charged that Scott illegally operated a car by driving without a valid license. The specific charge — aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree — requires that the defendant knew or had reason to know that his license was suspended or otherwise invalid.