Court upholds tossing of conviction

(adapted from the Times Herald Record, May 10th, 2000)

GOSHEN: A court ruling frees a man and will change the way judges instruct jurors.

By Timothy O'Connor
The Times Herald-Record

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Michael Maragh walked out of Orange County Jail a free man yesterday.
Again.

The state's highest court ruled that Orange County Court Judge Jeffrey G. Berry was right to toss out Maragh's 1997 conviction of criminally negligent homicide in connection with the death of 26-year-old May DeGroat of Middletown. Berry ruled that a juror who worked as a nurse likely tainted the panel's deliberations by injecting her own expertise into the discussions.

A three-judge panel from the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court reversed Berry and reinstated the conviction last July. In October, Berry sentenced Maragh to two to four years in state prison.But Maragh's lawyer, Ben Ostrer, appealed to the state Court of Appeals. Yesterday's unanimous decision by the Court of Appeals agreed with Berry and Ostrer. The ruling will change the way judges instruct juries before deliberations.

"It will be a subtle change," said Ben Ostrer, as he stood outside the Orange County Jail waiting for his client, Maragh, to be released. "But I think an appropriate one."

In an opinion written by Judge Joseph Bellacosa, the state's highest court said that judges should consider instructing jurors that during their deliberations they "may not use their professional expertise to insert facts and evidence."

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