People v Lopez
2010 NY Slip Op 01601 [70 AD3d 611]
February 25, 2010
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, March 31, 2010


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
William Lopez, Appellant.

[*1] Speiser & Heinzmann, White Plains (Joseph C. Heinzmann, Jr. of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Aaron Ginandes of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Rosalyn H. Richter, J.), rendered December 19, 2001, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 4½ to 9 years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). From an observation post, the police saw defendant provide drugs to an apprehended buyer in return for money. There is no basis for disturbing the jury's credibility determinations, including its rejection of defendant's testimony, which was the sole basis of his agency defense.

The court properly exercised its discretion in denying defendant's mistrial motion based on claimed improprieties in the prosecutor's summation, since the court's prompt and thorough curative instructions were sufficient to prevent the challenged remarks from causing any prejudice (see People v Santiago, 52 NY2d 865 [1981]). Concur—Andrias, J.P., Sweeny, McGuire and Acosta, JJ.