Opinion
July 15, 1985
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Ramirez, J.).
Judgment affirmed.
The undercover police officer's testimony that, upon his request to purchase cocaine from defendant, defendant instructed Ramon Beltre to "do him a dime of coke", and that Beltre then removed a brown paper bag containing glassine envelopes of cocaine from a hole in the wall of the building a few feet away and sold $10 worth of cocaine to the undercover officer, was sufficient to establish defendant's constructive possession of the cocaine ( People v. Holmes, 104 A.D.2d 1049). The jury was entitled to disbelieve the testimony of defendant's former girlfriend that he was merely present when the police searched the hole and found the drugs.
The prosecutor's request, made in open court in front of the jury, to close the courtroom for the undercover officer's testimony, was highly improper but the court's prompt instruction to the jury to disregard the remark was sufficient to cure the error. Therefore, it did not deprive defendant of a fair trial ( People v. Cuevas, 99 A.D.2d 553).
Defendant's other objections are not preserved for review (CPL 470.05).
The sentence imposed was not excessive in view of defendant's previous record of violent crimes. Lazer, J.P., Gibbons, Thompson and Kunzeman, JJ., concur.