| People v Loney |
| 2007 NY Slip Op 06797 [43 AD3d 726] |
| September 20, 2007 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Jermaine Loney, Appellant. |
—[*1] Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Eldar Mayouhas of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Denis J. Boyle, J.), rendered August 23, 2005,convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the thirddegree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 4½ to 9 years,unanimously affirmed.
The court properly permitted the limited closure of the courtroom during the undercoverofficer's testimony, where the officer had testified that he would be returning to undercover workin the area of defendant's arrest and in the area of the courthouse, and took precautions whenentering the courthouse (see People v Ramos, 90 NY2d 490, 498-500 [1997], certdenied sub nom. Ayala v New York, 522 US 1002 [1997]).
The court properly permitted the People to reopen their case to introduce a writtendescription of defendant made by the undercover officer prior to defendant's arrest, when defensecounsel's summation implied that the undercover officer's testimony about the seller's descriptionwas a recent fabrication made to conform with defendant's appearance at the time of his arrest(see People v McDaniel, 81 NY2d 10, 18 [1993]; People v Terrell, 298 AD2d241 [2002], lv denied 99 NY2d 585 [2003]; People v De Los Angeles, 270 AD2d196, 199 [2000], lv denied, 95 NY2d 889 [2000]). In any event, were we to find that anyerror occurred, we would find it to be harmless. Concur—Lippman, P.J., Mazzarelli,Sullivan, Nardelli and Sweeny, JJ.