People v. Pointer

—Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Roman, J.), rendered July 22, 1997, convicting him of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law and as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, and a new trial is ordered.

The prosecutor’s mischaracterization of the defendant’s testimony, which was intended to convince the jury that the defendant had admitted his guilt when in fact he had not, constituted a gross distortion, the magnitude of which…