Opinion
June 24, 1996
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Vaccaro, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, with one bill of costs.
We find unpersuasive the appellant's contention that he was deprived of a fair trial by the trial court's conduct. The trial court's interjections, albeit frequent, were designed to, and did, elicit and clarify facts material to the issues in the trial and expedite the progress of the trial ( LaMotta v. City of New York, 130 A.D.2d 627), and were performed in an "evenhanded, non-prejudicial" manner ( Vialva v. City of New York, 118 A.D.2d 701, 704). Mangano, P.J., Rosenblatt, Ritter and Copertino, JJ., concur.