The name Edwin Morales appears in three unrelated New York legal matters worth knowing about: a 1992 New York Court of Appeals decision on whether a defendant must be present at a child witness’s competency hearing, a second-degree murder conviction entered in Monroe County in 2004 and affirmed on appeal in 2007, and a federal civil rights lawsuit against New York City filed in 2017 that settled the following year. Each involves a different defendant or plaintiff; the shared name is the only connection.
The 1992 Court of Appeals Ruling on Child Witness Competency Hearings
In March 1988, Edwin Morales was indicted in New York on rape, sodomy, and related charges involving two children who lived with him in a stepfather role. A jury convicted him. On appeal, the question that reached New York’s highest court was narrow but important: had the trial judge violated Morales’s right to be present at trial by excluding him from a preliminary hearing to determine whether a nine-year-old witness understood the nature of an oath, as required by Criminal Procedure Law section 60.20?1Cornell Law Institute. People v. Edwin Morales, 80 N.Y.2d 450 (1992)
On December 17, 1992, the Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction. It held that the competency hearing was not a “core” part of the trial and that the defendant’s presence would have been “useless,” because the inquiry did not involve substantive testimony about the underlying charges. During that hearing one of the children had said, “Edwin, the father of my brothers, he did fresh things to me,” but the court treated the exchange as directed to the witness’s ability to take an oath rather than to the merits.1Cornell Law Institute. People v. Edwin Morales, 80 N.Y.2d 450 (1992)
The decision remains a reference point in New York on the scope of a defendant’s right to be present during pretrial proceedings involving child witnesses.
The 2004 Second-Degree Murder Conviction and 2007 Appeal
A different Edwin Morales pleaded guilty to second-degree murder under New York Penal Law section 125.25. Judgment was entered on July 2, 2004, in Monroe County Court before Judge Patricia D. Marks.2New York State Unified Court System. People v. Edwin Morales, 43 AD3d 1384 (2007)
Morales challenged the factual sufficiency of his plea on appeal. On September 28, 2007, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, unanimously affirmed. The court found the challenge was covered by his valid waiver of the right to appeal and had not been preserved for review in any event.2New York State Unified Court System. People v. Edwin Morales, 43 AD3d 1384 (2007)
The 2017 Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Against New York City
On September 14, 2017, an Edwin Morales filed a federal civil rights suit against the City of New York and several individual defendants: Vincent Ciardiello, Carlos Irizarry, Juancarl Palacios, Frank Rodriguez, and five John Does. The case, No. 1:17-cv-05412, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and assigned to Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall. Jurisdiction rested on 28 U.S.C. ยง 1331, and the docket classified it as “Civil Rights: Other.”3CourtListener. Morales v. City of New York, No. 1:17-cv-05412
The parties reached a settlement in principle by early 2018. A stipulation of dismissal was filed on June 11, 2018, and the case was terminated on June 13, 2018, after Judge DeArcy Hall endorsed the stipulation and order of dismissal.3CourtListener. Morales v. City of New York, No. 1:17-cv-05412
The financial terms of the settlement, and the specific factual allegations in the original complaint, are not detailed in publicly available court records.