People v. Cuccia

Opinion

RYLAARSDAM, J.

Defendant Stephen Cuccia, Jr., was found guilty of five counts of selling unregistered securities, one count of misrepresenting a security, and one count of attempted grand theft. He contends, among other things, that the trial court improperly forced him to testify out of order and erred by refusing to allow him to testify after the prosecutor was permitted to reopen rebuttal. We agree both incidents resulted in error and, while neither error is per se reversible, we conclude the cumulative effect of the errors violated defendant’s due process right to a fair trial. We…