PEOPLE v. BLANDING (2024)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Bonnie Wittner, J.), rendered February 17, 2017, as amended May 16, 2017, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of sexual abuse in the first degree (two counts), and sentencing him to an aggregate term of seven years, unanimously affirmed.

The court providently exercised its discretion in denying defendant's challenge for cause to a prospective juror whose responses, viewed as a whole, demonstrated that even if she had a predisposition to credit the victim's testimony based on her own background knowledge, she unequivocally assured the court that she would put it aside and rely only on the evidence adduced at trial (see People v. Warrington, 28 N.Y.3d 1116, 1120, 45 N.Y.S.3d 345, 68 N.E.3d 70 [2016];  People v. Arnold, 96 N.Y.2d 358, 362, 729 N.Y.S.2d 51, 753 N.E.2d 846 [2001]).  Defendant's claim that the court should have made a further inquiry is unpreserved, and we decline to review it in the interest of justice.  As an alternative holding, we reject it on the merits.