Opinion
Submitted March 12, 2001
April 16, 2001
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Nassau County (Ort, J.), rendered December 9, 1997, convicting him of burglary in the third degree, reckless endangerment in the second degree, and violations of Vehicle and Traffic Law §§ 509(1) and 1180(d), upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. The appeal brings up for review the denial, after a hearing, of that branch of the defendant's omnibus motion which was to suppress physical evidence.
Andrew J. Schatkin, Jericho, N.Y., for appellant.
Denis Dillon, District Attorney, Mineola, N.Y. (Peter A. Weinstein and Andrea M. DiGregorio of counsel), for respondent.
Before: LAWRENCE J. BRACKEN, P.J., CORNELIUS J. O'BRIEN, GLORIA GOLDSTEIN, LEO F. McGINITY, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the judgment is reversed, on the law, and a new trial is ordered.
At a joint trial of the defendant and his codefendant, Maurice McCorkle (see, People v. McCorkle, [2d Dept., Dec. 4, 2000]), the trial court permitted the prosecutor to exercise a peremptory challenge to exclude a prospective juror because he was of Haitian ancestry. Since the People have correctly conceded that this constituted reversible error (see, People v. McCorkle, supra), a new trial is ordered.
The defendant's challenge to the suppression ruling is without merit, and his argument regarding the partial verdict is academic (see, People v. McCorkle, supra).
BRACKEN, P.J., O'BRIEN, GOLDSTEIN and McGINITY, JJ., concur.