PEOPLE v. BRANCH (2008)

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York.

The PEOPLE, etc., respondent, v. Curtis BRANCH, appellant.

Decided: February 26, 2008

REINALDO E. RIVERA, J.P., HOWARD MILLER, MARK C. DILLON, and ARIEL E. BELEN, JJ.

Steven Banks, New York, N.Y. (Amy Donner of counsel), for appellant. Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove and Sholom J. Twersky of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Gary, J.), rendered March 24, 2006, convicting him of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.

Contrary to the defendant's contention, the Supreme Court properly excluded his sister's fiancé from the courtroom during the undercover officer's testimony. Once the prosecution met its burden of showing that closure of the courtroom to the general public was required in order to protect the safety of the undercover officer, the burden shifted to the defendant to show that his sister's fiancé was “linked to him by some tie of more significance than ordinary friendship” (People v. Nazario, 4 N.Y.3d 70, 74, 790 N.Y.S.2d 628, 823 N.E.2d 1274; see People v. Sweeney, 25 A.D.3d 335, 336, 808 N.Y.S.2d 637). The defendant failed to meet this burden.

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