DETECTIVE’S TESTIMONY DEMONSTRATED THE WITNESS’S IDENTIFICATION OF DEFENDANT WAS CONFIRMATORY, HEARSAY IS ADMISSIBLE AT A RODRIGUEZ HEARING (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department determined that the detective’s testimony at the Rodriguez hearing established that the witness’s identification of defendant was confirmatory and noted that the witness need not testify at the hearing because hearsay is admissible:
At a Rodriguez hearing (see People v Rodriguez, 79 NY2d 445 [1992]), a detective’s testimony established that a witness was sufficiently familiar with defendant so that his identification of defendant was confirmatory. The People were not obligated to call the identifying witness … , because the detective gave detailed testimony about the witness’s relationship with defendant. The witness knew defendant, a frequent customer in the witness’s store, by his first name, and saw him several times a week over a period of three years.
Defendant’s request that the witness testify at the Rodriguez hearing was insufficient to preserve his present claim that such testimony was constitutionally required under the Confrontation Clause, and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we reject this claim on the merits, in light of the fundamental difference between a suppression hearing, where hearsay is generally admissible, and a trial … . People v Lee, 2019 NY Slip Op 00824, First Dept 2-5-19