People v Barreto-Mejia
2012 NY Slip Op 08757 [101 AD3d 1040]
December 19, 2012
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, February 6, 2013


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
JoseLuis Barreto-Mejia, Appellant.

[*1]Pappalardo & Pappalardo, LLP, Scarsdale, N.Y. (John P. Devaney and Jill K. Sanders ofcounsel), for appellant.

Janet DiFiore, District Attorney, White Plains, N.Y. (Maria I. Wagner, Steven A. Bender,and Richard Longworth Hecht of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Neary,J.), rendered April 21, 2010, convicting him of course of sexual conduct against a child in thefirst degree (two counts) and endangering the welfare of a child (two counts), upon a jury verdict,and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

Contrary to the defendant's contentions, the trial court properly determined that the then10-year-old complainant was a vulnerable child witness within the meaning of CPL 65.20 basedupon the testimony and evidence presented at the hearing, which collectively established, byclear and convincing evidence, several of the 12 factors cited in CPL 65.20 (10) (see CPL65.20 [10]; People v Cintron, 75 NY2d 249, 267 [1990]; People v Ramos, 203AD2d 599 [1994]; People v Lindstadt, 174 AD2d 696, 697 [1991]; People vGuce, 164 AD2d 946, 947 [1990]). Accordingly, that complainant was properly permitted totestify via two-way closed-circuit television, and the defendant's constitutional right toconfrontation was not violated.

The defendant's remaining contentions are without merit. Eng, P.J., Angiolillo, Sgroi andHinds-Radix, JJ., concur.


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