People v. Wheatley

Judgments, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Elbert Hinkson, J.), rendered March 21, 1991, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of attempted murder in the second degree and assault in the first degree, and, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him to concurrent terms of 7 to 21 years and 5 to 15 years, and 1 to 3 years, respectively, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant’s claim that the trial court erred in not permitting codefendant’s counsel to cross-examine the victim, an off-duty police officer, about the possible ramifications to his pension of not having identified himself as a police officer to his assailants is unpreserved for review as a matter of law, defendant never having joined in codefendant’s objection (People v Buckley, 75 NY2d 843 , 846), and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. If we were to review it, we would find that codefendant’s counsel’s personal "understanding” did not provide a good faith basis for arguing that the victim had a motive to lie in testifying that he had identified himself as a police officer because otherwise his injury would not be designated as line-of-duty for purposes of his pension, that the questions put concerning the possibility and effect of a line-of-duty designation called for pure speculation on the part of the victims, and that the line of questioning was therefore properly disallowed (see, People v Harrell, 209 AD2d 160 ). We would also find that, in any event, no harm was sustained as a result of the claimed error in view of the admission of the unusual occurrence report indicating that the victim told a police captain that he had not identified himself as a police officer. Concur—Wallach, J. P., Rubin, Asch, Nardelli and Tom, JJ.