PRESS RELEASE
FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT, DISTRICT ATTORNEY
DATE: JUNE 14, 2018 – PEOPLE V CHAD OLSON
Following his 2013 conviction, defendant was sentenced by County Court Judge Donald A. Williams to an aggregate term of 14 years in State prison followed by 10 years of postrelease supervision. Defendant appealed and, in 2015, defendant’s judgment of conviction was upheld by the Appellate Division, third department. Thereafter, defendant filed a CPL 440 motion seeking to set aside his conviction upon the ground that that his trial counsel was ineffective because he did not produce a qualified expert witness. Following a hearing, County Court denied the defendant’s 440 motion and defendant then appealed the County Court’s ruling back to the Appellate Division.
On appeal, defendant claimed that his trial attorney was ineffective because he did not call the forensic psychologist he preferred because such expert was unavailable and that while counsel retained another forensic psychologist who did in fact testify, he believed the expert counsel retained was less qualified than his first choice. At the hearing that was held in County Court after defendant’s appeal was denied, defendant’s trial counsel confirmed that the expert he did in fact retain was fully knowledgeable in the area of child sexual abuse. In denying defendant’s appeal of the judge’s ruling of his 440 motion, the Appellate Division emphasized that the failure to call a particular witness does not necessarily establish a claim of ineffectiveness, that the defense’s expert testified appropriately, and trial counsel conducted effective questioning of both the People’s and his own expert witness.
On appeal, the defendant is represented by Jonathan I. Edelstein, Esq. of New York City. Assistant District Attorney Carly Wolfrom, Esq. handled the appeal for the District Attorney’s Office.