PEOPLE v. COLON (2007)

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (John A. Barone, J.), rendered February 4, 2004, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 5 to 10 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly exercised its discretion in precluding defendant from cross-examining the arresting officers about alleged prior bad acts, where the source of defendant's information about such acts was mere rumor.   Accordingly, defendant lacked a good faith basis for such inquiry (see People v. Schwartzman, 24 N.Y.2d 241, 244, 299 N.Y.S.2d 817, 247 N.E.2d 642 [1969], cert. denied 396 U.S. 846, 90 S.Ct. 103, 24 L.Ed.2d 96 [1969] ).   We note that the court provided defendant with an ample opportunity to delve into the officers' police disciplinary histories.   Since defendant did not assert a constitutional right to make the excluded inquiries, his constitutional argument is unpreserved (see People v. Angelo, 88 N.Y.2d 217, 222, 644 N.Y.S.2d 460, 666 N.E.2d 1333 [1996];  People v. Gonzalez, 54 N.Y.2d 729, 442 N.Y.S.2d 980, 426 N.E.2d 474 [1981] ), and we decline to review it in the interest of justice.   Were we to review this claim, we would find no violation of defendant's right to confront witnesses and present a defense (see Crane v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 683, 689-690, 106 S.Ct. 2142, 90 L.Ed.2d 636 [1986];  Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 678-679, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 [1986] ).

The challenged portions of the prosecutor's summation did not deprive defendant of a fair trial, and the court properly exercised its discretion in denying defendant's mistrial motion (see People v. Overlee, 236 A.D.2d 133, 666 N.Y.S.2d 572 [1997], lv. denied 91 N.Y.2d 976, 672 N.Y.S.2d 855, 695 N.E.2d 724 [1998];  People v. D'Alessandro, 184 A.D.2d 114, 118-119, 591 N.Y.S.2d 1001 [1992], lv. denied 81 N.Y.2d 884, 597 N.Y.S.2d 945, 613 N.E.2d 977 [1993] ).   The court's curative actions were sufficient to prevent any improprieties in the summation from causing any prejudice.