People v. Brown — 215 A.D.2d 492

Majority

p. 492

The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Cecil Brown, Appellant.

[627 NYS2d 564]

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Rotker, J.), rendered June 10, 1993, convicting him of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

"Before a defense witness may be cross-examined regarding his or her failure to provide law enforcement authorities with exculpatory information attested to at trial, certain foundational requirements must be met” (People v Pittman, 187 AD2d 679 ; see, People v Dawson, 50 NY2d 311 , 321, n 4). The prosecutor in this case failed to comply with the foundational requirements set forth by the Court of Appeals in People v Dawson (supra) prior to cross-examining the defense witness.

p. 493

However, the error was harmless since there is no significant probability that the jury would have acquitted the defendant had the error not occurred (see, People v Ayala, 75 NY2d 422 , 431; People v Crimmins, 36 NY2d 230 , 241-242).

The defendant’s remaining contentions are either unpreserved for appellate review (see, CPL 470.05 [2]) or without merit. Miller, J. P., Pizzuto, Joy and Krausman, JJ., concur.

Cases cited

People v. Dawson 50 NY2d 311 N.Y. 1980-05-06 at 321 p. 492
People v. Ayala 75 NY2d 422 N.Y. 1990-02-13 at 431 p. 493
People v. Crimmins 36 NY2d 230 N.Y. 1975-02-25 at 241-242 p. 493