Opinion
December 6, 1993
Appeal from the County Court, Suffolk County (Mazzei, J.).
Ordered that the matter is remitted to the County Court, Suffolk County, to hear and report on the question of whether the defendant was present at the Sandoval hearing, and the appeal is held in abeyance in the interim.
The defendant contends that he was not present during the Sandoval hearing and that, therefore, his conviction must be reversed (see, People v Favor, 82 N.Y.2d 254; People v Dokes, 79 N.Y.2d 656). The Sandoval hearing was held in chambers, and the record is silent as to whether the defendant was present (cf., People v Robinson, 191 A.D.2d 523, where the Sandoval hearing was held in open court). Although we find that the defendant's presence at the Sandoval hearing would not have been merely "superfluous" because the Sandoval ruling was not "wholly favorable" to him (see, People v Favor, supra), the threshold factual issue as to the defendant's presence or absence at the Sandoval hearing must be resolved before this appeal is decided. Thus, the appeal is held in abeyance and the case is remitted to the trial court for a hearing on this matter (see, People v Mitchell, 189 A.D.2d 337; People v Rose, 172 A.D.2d 230, on appeal following remand 175 A.D.2d 32, affd 80 N.Y.2d 802; People v Laracuente, 125 A.D.2d 705). Mangano, P.J., Thompson, Sullivan and Ritter, JJ., concur.