People v Fuentes
2008 NY Slip Op 01165 [48 AD3d 479]
February 5, 2008
Appellate Division, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, April 16, 2008


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Jose Fuentes, Appellant.

[*1] Charles T. Glaws, New York, N.Y., for appellant.

Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove, Anne C. Feigus, and Clare Cusack of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Lott, J.), rendered February 28, 2006, convicting him of rape in the first degree and sodomy in the first degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant moved for a mistrial on the ground that the People failed to disclose a certain document in violation of Brady v Maryland (373 US 83 [1963]). However, even assuming that the document at issue constituted Brady material, the Supreme Court did not err in denying the defendant's motion. While the People unquestionably have a duty to disclose exculpatory material in their control, a defendant's 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 People's witnesses or as evidence during his case (see People v Cortijo, 70 NY2d 868, 870 [1987]; People v Myron, 28 AD3d 681 [2006], cert denied 549 US —, 127 S Ct 1919 [2007]).

The defendant's remaining contentions are without merit. Rivera, J.P., Ritter, Dillon and Carni, JJ., concur.