Opinion
No. 570359/10.
2012-09-19
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Mamadou DIATARA, Defendant–Appellant.
Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, New York County (Robert Mandelbaum, J.), rendered March 11, 2010, after a nonjury trial, convicting him of unlicensed general vending, and imposing sentence.
Present: SCHOENFELD, J.P., TORRES, and HUNTER, JR., JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Judgment of conviction (Robert Mandelbaum, J.), rendered March 11, 2010, affirmed.
The verdict was supported by legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence. There is no basis for disturbing the trial court's credibility determinations. The elements of unlicensed general vending ( see Administrative Code of City of N.Y. § 20–453) were established by the credited police testimony that defendant, without the requisite license, was observed standing immediately behind a suitcase ultimately found to contain a number of handbags; that he spoke with and showed the contents of the suitcase to two female passersby; and that he fled in response to the police approach.
We find unavailing defendant's challenge to the facial sufficiency of the underlying information. At the pleading stage, the sworn police allegation that defendant displayed and offered for sale 23 handbags to two unidentified individuals is “sufficiently evidentiary in character” (People v. Allen, 92 N.Y.2d 378, 385 [1998] ) to support the sale or offer for sale element of the charged offense ( see People v. Abdurraheem, 94 AD3d 569 [2012];People v. Zhang, 14 Misc.3d 82 [2007],lv denied8 NY3d 951 [2007] ).