PEOPLE v. FEINGOLD (2005)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Jeffrey M. Atlas, J.), rendered November 18, 2004, convicting defendant, after a nonjury trial, of reckless endangerment in the first degree, and sentencing him to a term of 5 years' probation, unanimously affirmed.

 The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence.   Defendant engaged in conduct that created the obvious danger of a major gas explosion in an occupied apartment building.   The court properly found that this conduct satisfied the elements of first-degree reckless endangerment (see Penal Law § 120.25;  People v. Register, 60 N.Y.2d 270, 469 N.Y.S.2d 599, 457 N.E.2d 704 [1983] ).   Reckless endangerment does not require a showing of extreme wickedness or abject moral deficiency on the part of the perpetrator (see e.g. People v. Narimanbekov, 258 A.D.2d 417, 686 N.Y.S.2d 382 [1999] ).