Opinion
October 23, 1995
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Starkey, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
There is no merit to the defendant's contention that he was entitled to have counsel present during the lineup because he was represented by counsel in another, unrelated case. At the Wade hearing, the detective who arranged the lineup testified, contrary to the defendant's testimony, that the defendant never asked for his counsel at the lineup. The hearing court determined that the credibility of the detective outweighed that of defendant. Consequently, the hearing court properly denied the branch of the defendant's omnibus motion which was to suppress the testimony about the identification of the defendant at the lineup (see, People v. LaClere, 76 N.Y.2d 670; People v. Coates, 74 N.Y.2d 244).
While the testimony concerning the defendant's prior criminal activity was improper (see, People v. Vails, 43 N.Y.2d 364; People v. Henry, 166 A.D.2d 720), the mere mention of uncharged criminal activity does not irretrievably prejudice the defendant. The prejudice may be alleviated by the court's sustaining the defendant's objection and taking prompt curative action (see, People v. Santiago, 52 N.Y.2d 865). The trial court in this case properly sustained defense objections to the testimony in question and promptly gave the jury a curative instruction, thereby obviating any prejudice to the defendant (see, People v Santiago, supra). As a result, the court did not improvidently exercise its discretion by denying the defendant's motion for a mistrial (see, People v. McCallop, 159 A.D.2d 731). Sullivan, J.P., Miller, Copertino and Goldstein, JJ., concur.