People v. Polonsky

OPINION OF THE COURT

Judgment of conviction, rendered April 3, 2012, reversed, on the law and the facts, and new trial ordered.

Defendant was tried on a charge of attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree {see Penal Law § 265.01 [1]) based on police allegations that he was observed in a subway station with a gravity knife clipped to his pants pocket. The centerpiece of defendant’s trial defense was his contention that the knife in question did not meet the definitional requirements of a gravity knife, in that it did not open “by the force of gravity or the application of…