People v. Richardson

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Norma Ruiz, J.), rendered February 17, 2000, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near school grounds, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 7 to 14 years, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the matter remanded for a new trial.

The trial court’s exclusion of defendant’s children, ages eight and nine, from the courtroom violated defendant’s right to a public trial, there being no support in the record for the contention that these children were being disruptive (see, People v James, 229 AD2d 315 , 316, lv denied 88 NY2d 1021 , citing People v Gutierez, 86 NY2d 817 ; see also, People v Gomez, 256 AD2d 589 , lv denied 93 NY2d 924 ; People v Miller, 224 AD2d 639 , lv denied 88 NY2d 851 ). Defense counsel’s objection at trial to the exclusion of these nondisruptive children from the courtroom, although without specific reference to the right to a public trial, was sufficient to preserve the issue for appellate review (see, People v Nieves, 90 NY2d 426 , 431 n; People v Spence, 239 AD2d 218 , 219). While the trial court’s exclusion of defendant’s younger niece and nephew may have been justified, the foregoing makes it unnecessary for us to reach that is