People v. Sostre

Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County, rendered November 5, 1970, convicting him of certain narcotics crimes, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. Judgment reversed, on the law, and new trial ordered. The findings of fact below are affirmed. In our opinion, defendant was deprived of a fair and impartial trial by the trial court. The record demonstrates that the court unduly interjected itself into the proceedings and undertook to gratuitously aid the prosecution’s case by its own interrogation of the prosecution witnesses and by comments. It took it…