People v Diaz
2008 NY Slip Op 03470 [50 AD3d 919]
April 15, 2008
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, June 18, 2008


The People of the State of New York,Respondent,
v
Patricia Diaz, Also Known as Jacqueline Roman,Appellant.

[*1]Lynn W. L. Fahey, New York, N.Y. (Anna Pervukhin of counsel), for appellant.

Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens, N.Y. (John M. Castellano, Ellen C.Abbot, and Melissa Mortazavi of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County(Cooperman, J.), rendered June 27, 2006, convicting her of burglary in the second degree andcriminal possession of stolen property in the fifth degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposingsentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant's challenge to the trial court's Sandoval ruling (see People vSandoval, 34 NY2d 371 [1974]) is without merit. The defendant's past crimes and past use ofaliases were highly relevant on the issue of credibility because they demonstrated the defendant'swillingness to deliberately further her self-interest at the expense of society (see People v Telesford, 2 AD3d757, 758 [2003]; People v Fulford, 280 AD2d 682 [2001]). Moreover, the prosecutorwas not permitted to inquire about the underlying facts of these prior crimes (see People vTelesford, 2 AD3d at 758). The defendant failed to sustain her burden of "demonstrating thatthe prejudicial effect of the evidence of [her] prior convictions so outweighed its probative worththat its exclusion was warranted" (People v Myron, 28 AD3d 681, 683 [2006]; see People vMackey, 49 NY2d 274, 282 [1980]; People v Boseman, 161 AD2d 601, 602 [1990]).

The defendant failed to raise any constitutional objections to the trial court'sSandoval ruling and therefore, to the extent that the defendant now raises constitutionalclaims, they are not preserved for appellate review (see People v Grant, 7 NY3d 421, 424 [2006]; People v Olibencia, 45 AD3d 607,608 [2007]). Mastro, J.P., Santucci, Eng and Belen, JJ., concur.


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