People v. Armstead — 134 A.D.2d 601

Majority

p. 601

The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Gary Armstead, Appellant.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Leahy, J.), rendered October 21, 1985, convicting him of robbery in the first degree and robbery in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

Viewing the record as a whole, we conclude that the defendant received a fair trial. The direct examination of the arresting officer elicited no improper information. Just as the testimony of a police officer that he conducted an investigation which ultimately focused on the defendant is proper, testi

p. 602

mony indicating that the original investigating officer ultimately focused on the defendant as a suspect is similarly proper. Such testimony cannot be equated with police testimony improperly implying that a witness who was not brought to testify did in fact implicate the defendant, as occurred in People v Melendez ( 55 NY2d 445 ) and People v Tufano ( 69 AD2d 826 ). The limited participation of the trial court in the cross-examination of a defense witness was done in the interest of facilitating the process of the trial and forestalling any equivocal testimony by the witness and was, therefore, entirely appropriate (see, People v Yut Wai Tom, 53 NY2d 44 , 55; People v Moulton, 43 NY2d 944 , 945).

Finally, the contention that the jury charge contained an error was not preserved for appellate review (see, CPL 470.05 [2]) and we decline to reach it in the exercise of our interest of justice jurisdiction. Bracken, J. P., Brown, Weinstein and Spatt, JJ., concur.

Cases cited

People v. Melendez 55 NY2d 445 N.Y. 1982-04-07 p. 602
People v. Yut Wai Tom 53 NY2d 44 N.Y. 1981-05-14 at 55 p. 602
People v. Moulton 43 NY2d 944 N.Y. 1978-02-22 at 945 p. 602