People v. Betts

Defendants’ conviction of the crimes of reselling theatre tickets at excessive prices (General Business Law, § 169-c) and conspiracy so to do (Penal Law, § 580) are being reversed on the ground that the police officer’s testimony of the telephone conversations is incompetent because he admitted destroying original and secondary memoranda of the talks to avoid cross-examination. The People urge that the admitted destruction of the original memoranda does not make the testimony incompetent or entirely inadmissible, but bears on *744the weight, if any, that should be accredited to it. In the light…