People State New York v. Frank Pejcinovic

On July 28, 1986 at approximately 4:30 P.M., Ramon Rivera and his friend, Pedro Molina, two Spanish-speaking Puerto Ricans, were attacked near the intersection of 188th Street and Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. Someone threw a glass bottle at them but when they endeavored to ignore the provocation, Rivera observed a person hit his companion with a baseball bat. Molina fell to the ground, and Rivera, in order to protect the other man, threw himself on top of Molina. After Rivera had himself absorbed three blows from the bat, he was shoved up against a car about three times. That evening at St. Barnabas Hospital, as the less injured of the two complainants, Rivera described the perpetrators to Police Officer Quinn with the assistance of unofficial translators. The officer's ensuing report stated as follows: ""(Perp. #1) male, white, age 16, height 5' 11"", weight 160 lbs with brown medium length hair. (Perp. #2) works in Carvel - 187th Street and Cambreling Ave., male, age 16, height 5' 7"", eyes green, hair blonde, medium length."" Detective Golub, also relying upon unofficial interpreters, reinterviewed Rivera later that same evening and noted in his report that ""Rivera stated that he has seen one of the subjects . . . a few times within the last few weeks at the Carvel store . . . Rivera describes the subject as a male/white/16 yrs old/5' 7""/150 lbs/green eyes/blonde medium length hair. He describes the subject with the baseball bat as a male/white/16 yrs old/5"" 11""/160 lbs/brown medium length hair."" Following his discharge from the hospital that same night, Rivera went to the precinct house and informed Detective Golub, again through interpreters, that he had just seen one of his assailants at the Carvel store and that a blue Cadillac driven by the bat-wielder was parked around the corner from that store. He advised Detective Golub and his partner that the youth with the bat was a white male, 16 years of age, 5' 11"" tall and having medium length hair. It should be noted that Rivera's subsequent depiction of the attackers varied from his initial ones, and at trial Rivera testified that the bat-wielder had a strong muscular build, was approximately 5' 7"" to 5' 9"" tall with short curly hair and skin that ""looked . . . Puerto Rican"". The second person was detailed by him as being a skinny white about 5' 10 or 5' 11"" tall with hair that was ""a little bit straight"", while a third culprit was a blond ""American"" having ""skinny, straight hair"" and light eyes.