Opinion
2001-01174
Argued January 3, 2003.
January 21, 2003.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Rios, J.), rendered January 31, 2001, convicting him of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.
Lynn W. L. Fahey, New York, N.Y. (Yvonne Shivers of counsel), for appellant.
Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens, N.Y. (John M. Castellano, Jeanette Lifschitz, and Josette Simmons-McGhee of counsel), for respondent.
Before: GABRIEL M. KRAUSMAN, J.P., WILLIAM D. FRIEDMANN, WILLIAM F. MASTRO, REINALDO E. RIVERA, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.
The defendant's contention that the trial court's Allen charge (see Allen v. United States, 164 U.S. 492) was coercive is not preserved for appellate review since he did not raise a specific objection on that ground (see People v. Ramkisson, 245 A.D.2d 393; People v. McRae, 266 A.D.2d 241). In any event, the charge as a whole was not coercive (see People v. Ford, 78 N.Y.2d 878, 880; People v. Kinard, 215 A.D.2d 591).
The defendant also failed to preserve his claim that the trial court erroneously charged the jury that the techniques used by the police to collect evidence were not their "concern" (see People v. Hernandez, 172 A.D.2d 560). In any event, while that instruction may not have been appropriate, the charge, when read as a whole, adequately conveyed to the jurors that it was their duty to reach a verdict based on the sufficiency of the evidence or the lack of evidence and that the police were not required to investigate or prove the People's case in any particular way (see People v. Marchese, 224 A.D.2d 341, 342).
The defendant's remaining contention is without merit.
KRAUSMAN, J.P., FRIEDMANN, MASTRO and RIVERA, JJ., concur.