Opinion
November 7, 1994
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Robinson, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The Supreme Court properly denied a motion to strike prospective juror number five for cause (see, CPL 270.20 [b]; People v. Blyden, 55 N.Y.2d 73; People v. Williams, 63 N.Y.2d 882, 885; People v. Pagan, 191 A.D.2d 651). Moreover, the Supreme Court properly determined that the defendant was not entitled to pretrial discovery but that he could inspect the vials of cocaine after they were admitted into evidence at trial (see, People v White, 40 N.Y.2d 797, 798).
The Supreme Court properly ordered the closure of the courtroom during the testimony of the undercover police officer. The undercover police officer testified at a closed hearing that two to four times a week he worked in the same area and in the same precinct where the defendant had been arrested, that he had several "lost subjects" (i.e., persons from whom he had bought drugs who had not been apprehended) in that area, that he had a pending case arising from a transaction that he had made the day before the hearing, and that he feared for his own safety and the safety of other officers for whom he worked as a "ghost" or back-up officer (see, People v. Martinez, 82 N.Y.2d 436; People v. Glover, 57 N.Y.2d 61, 65; People v. Jones, 47 N.Y.2d 409, 417, cert denied 444 U.S. 946; People v. Jamison, 203 A.D.2d 385; People v. Thompson, 202 A.D.2d 456; People v Brown, 172 A.D.2d 844, 845; People v. Weaver, 162 A.D.2d 486, 487).
We have considered the defendant's remaining contentions and find them to be without merit. Thompson, J.P., Balletta, Rosenblatt and Florio, JJ., concur.