People v. Vickio
Full Opinion (html_with_citations)
It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed.
Memorandum: Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him following a jury trial of burglary in the third degree (Penal Law § 140.20) and grand larceny in the third degree (§ 155.35). Defendant failed to preserve for our review his contention that County Court erred in admitting in evidence a photograph produced from a surveillance videotape, in violation of the best evidence rule (see CPL 470.05 [2]). In any event, there was no violation of the best evidence rule in this case. Under that rule, āa party may produce a substitute for an original ... if the absence or unavailability of the original is satisfactorily explained and the mishap was innocentā (People v Grasso, 237 AD2d 741, 742 [1997], lv denied 89 NY2d 1035 [1997]). Here, a police officer testified at trial that he observed defendant on the surveillance videotape from a grocery store where he had purchased gasoline and that the image depicted in the photograph from the videotape, although smaller than the image in the videotape, was the same as that on the videotape. The police officer further testified that the videotape had been returned to the grocery store. We thus conclude that āthe absence or unavailability of the original [was] satisfactorily explained and [that] the mishap was innocentā (id.). Also contrary to defendantās contention, there was no Brady violation with respect to the photograph and the videotape. According to defendant, the photograph taken from the videotape was exculpatory, because it, inter alia, depicted a codefendant rather than defendant. The record establishes that the People discovered the photograph a week before the commencement of the trial and, although they agreed to an adjournment of the trial at that time, defendant did not want an adjournment. It is well settled that āa defendantās constitutional right to a fair trial is not violated when, as here, he is given a meaningful opportunity to use the allegedly exculpatory material to cross-examine the Peopleās witnesses or as evidence during his caseā (People v Cortijo, 70 NY2d 868, 870 [1987]).