Opinion
October 21, 1999
Michael Sobie for Respondent.
Reena M. Sandoval for Defendant-Appellant.
SULLIVAN, J.P., NARDELLI, WALLACH, ANDRIAS, BUCKLEY, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Lawrence Bernstein, J.), rendered June 11, 1997, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of one count of criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near school grounds and one count of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 4+ to 9 years, unanimously affirmed.
Limited expert testimony, by an officer who was also a fact witness, concerning methods used by drug dealers to avoid being found in possession of drugs and buy money was properly admitted to explain the non-recovery of the buy money (see, People v. Hunt, 249 A.D.2d 246, lv denied 92 N.Y.2d 899). Such testimony did not suggest a large-scale drug conspiracy (see, People v. McAllister, 255 A.D.2d 241, lv denied, 93 N.Y.2d 876).
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.