People v. Jason F.

OPINION OF THE COURT

Joseph K. McKay, J.

This opinion is a more formal expression of one of the pretrial rulings issued from the Bench in this criminal action. The question concerns the defendant’s youthful offender status and the concomitant mode of trial. Although its resolution is only a matter of statutory interpretation, the apparent confusion arising from the need to correlate different sections of the *221Criminal Procedure Law and the Penal Law merits this short opinion.

The defendant is a 17-year-old young man (date of birth June 26, 1971) originally charged with felonies that were reduced…