People v. Hales

—Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Rios, J.), rendered October 15, 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 a new trial is ordered.

The defendant correctly contends that his right to a public trial was violated by the exclusion of his mother from the courtroom during the jury charge. The defendant’s counsel sufficiently objected to the trial court’s sua sponte decision to exclude the defendant’s mother, who had…