NEW YORK (AP) - Missing transcripts are delaying appeals and adding to a debate over whether the state’s criminal courts should rely on digital recordings instead.
According to The New York Times, stenographer Daniel Kochanski left incomplete records of at least six trials and two dozen other proceedings.
He was fired from state Supreme Court in Manhattan in March 2012.
Kochanski told the New York Post that he did his job “100 percent.” He said he’s in recovery after substance abuse problems.
An appeals court ordered lawyers to reconstruct the missing hearings from their own records. That’s delaying some appeals more than seven months.
Lawyers in the robbery case want the verdict overturned. So far, prosecutors say, no convictions have been reversed because of the transcript problem.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.