PEOPLE v. GREENE (2008)

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Robert G. Seewald, J.), rendered July 13, 2004, convicting defendant, after a jury verdict, of insurance fraud in the fifth degree, and sentencing him to a term of 3 years' probation, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant's application pursuant to Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 [1986].   Although defendant joined in a codefendant's claim that there was a prima facie case of discrimination, defendant did not join in any of the codefendant's subsequent arguments.   After the prosecution explained its reasons for the challenges at issue, only the codefendant objected when the court accepted these reasons as nonpretextual.   Thus, despite ample opportunity to do so, defendant failed to preserve his current claims for appellate review (People v. Allen, 86 N.Y.2d 101, 111, 629 N.Y.S.2d 1003, 653 N.E.2d 1173 [1995];  People v. Buckley, 75 N.Y.2d 843, 552 N.Y.S.2d 912, 552 N.E.2d 160 [1990] ), and we decline to review them in the interest of justice.   As an alternative holding, we also reject them on the merits.   The record supports the court's finding that the nondiscriminatory reasons provided by the prosecutor for the challenges in question were not pretextual.   This finding is entitled to great deference (see People v. Hernandez, 75 N.Y.2d 350, 553 N.Y.S.2d 85, 552 N.E.2d 621 [1990], affd. 500 U.S. 352, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 [1991] ).