People v. Brown

135 A.D.3d 495, 22 N.Y.S.3d 831

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: January 12, 2016
• Docket: 16623 5496/11
• Status: Published

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Laura A. Ward, J., at first jury trial; Cassandra M. Mullen, J., at second jury trial and sentencing), rendered June 12, 2013, convicting defendant of grand larceny in the fourth degree and resisting arrest, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to an aggregate term of 2 to 4 years, unanimously affirmed.

By failing to object or making only general objections, de fendant failed to preserve his challenges to the prosecutor’s conduct at the second trial, where defendant was convicted of grand larceny, and we decline to review them in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we reject them on the merits. The challenged portions of the prosecutor’s summation were generally responsive to defense arguments, and there was nothing so egregious as to warrant reversal (see People v Overlee, 236 AD2d 133 [1st Dept 1997], lv denied 91 NY2d 976 [1998]; People v D’Alessandro, 184 AD2d 114, 118-119 [1st Dept 1992], lv denied 81 NY2d 884 [1993]). Furthermore, by arguing in his opening statement that a police officer had “rushed to judgment” and arrested defendant without conducting a proper investigation and “without even hearing his side of the story,” defense counsel opened the door to otherwise inadmissible testimony regarding defendant’s postarrest silence. Concur— Mazzarelli, J.P., Friedman, Gische and Kapnick, JJ.