Opinion
October 5, 1992
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Egitto, J.).
Ordered that the sentence is modified, on the law, by deleting the provision thereof which imposed upon the defendant the obligation to pay restitution in the amount of $2,000; as so modified, the sentence is affirmed.
As the People commendably concede, in light of the Court of Appeals holding in People v Rowe ( 75 N.Y.2d 948), the Supreme Court was without authority at the time of sentencing herein to impose an order of restitution in the sum of $2,000 representing the so-called "buy" money expended by the police (see also, People v Montalvo, 178 A.D.2d 560; People v Titer, 176 A.D.2d 371). We note that after the sentence in this case was imposed, Penal Law § 60.27 was amended, effective November 1, 1991, to authorize restitution to law enforcement agencies to cover their expenditures of funds used in the purchase of drugs as part of investigations leading to convictions (L 1991, ch 545). Mangano, P.J., Bracken, Balletta, O'Brien and Copertino, JJ., concur.