Bad court reporter! Bad!

During the criminal trial, the court reporter was unable to capture substantial portions of the trial proceedings. So the stenographer instead recorded, "blah, blah, blah," "blah blah," "omitted," or undecipherable characters instead of the words actually spoken. This is what you read if you were going through jury selection, portions of the trial, jury notes and the verdict. The problem is you need a real transcript for the appeal. 

The case is People v. Meyers, issued by the New York Court of Appeals on May 26. The half-elbowed transcripts surfaced when defendant -- who was convicted of orchestrating a house fire in order to win someone's life insurance -- took up an appeal. I am sure panic ensued when the appellate lawyer realized the transcripts contained all the nonsense. Here is a sample of what the transcript looked like, when the trial judge addressed the jury:

"A trial jury is composed of 12 people. In addition to the 12 jurors, we also, blah, blah, sworn in as a trial juror will serve as the jury's foreperson. You've heard reference to the fact that the defendant was indicted by a grand jury. This is not and must not be taken guilty you, blah, blah, trial jury must consider an indictment by, blah, blah, accused of a crime. Only you as members of the trial jury can determine guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and until you (untranscribable) find him guilty." 

You can "yada yada yada" your way through a Seinfeld plot but you can't "blah, blah, blah" you way through a criminal trial.  

The trial court held a four-day reconstruction hearing, during which the court heard testimony from the trial judge who presided over the case, the judge's law clerk, all the lawyers who handled the case, and collected notes taken from judge during trial. The hope was that the court could reconstruct what actually happened at trial besides "blah, blah, blah." 

The case reached the New York Court of Appeals on the theory that defendant deserved a new trial because he did not have a proper trial record. But the Court holds that the reconstruction hearing was adequate and other, non-stenographic evidence, was preserved, including video of defendant and his wife visiting the home right before the fire and removing bags of materials from the home, presumably the stuff that defendant did not want burned into oblivion. As for the reconstructed trial record, defendant has not shown any appealable issues relating to those portions of the trial that were not adequately recorded by the court reporter.