155 A.D.2d 283 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1989
— Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Irving Lang, J.), rendered May 20, 1987, convicting defendant after jury trial of grand larceny in the fourth degree (Penal Law § 155.30) and sentencing him to a term of 1% to 3^ years’ imprisonment, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant’s main contention is that the trial court improperly denied him permission to call as a witness an investigating detective who interviewed Ada Kleiman by telephone several hours after the incident and had made a written report that Ms. Kleiman had stated "I was approached by a male Hispanic who found my pocketbook”. When Ms. Kleiman was questioned by defense counsel regarding what she had purportedly said to the investigating detective, she testified "I don’t remember my exact words. Maybe I said so. * * * I don’t remember what I said”. Since Ada Kleiman conceded that she might have told the detective that a Hispanic man (Padilla) had "found” her pocketbook, the detective’s testimony on that point would have been merely cumulative, and therefore the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it denied defense counsel permission to call the investigating detective to testify regarding the recorded statement. (See, People v Davis, 43 NY2d 17, 27; Radosh v Shipstad, 20 NY2d 504, 508.) Even if it was error to preclude the detective’s testimony, the error was harmless in view of the overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt (People v Crimmins, 36 NY2d 230, 240-241). We have examined the defendant’s other contentions going to the reliability of the witnesses’ testimony and find them to be without merit. Concur — Murphy, P. J., Ross, Ellerin, Smith and Rubin, JJ.