Mario Gonzalez v. Pedro Quinones, Superintendent, Mt. McGregory Correctional Facility, and Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of New York

LEVAL, Judge:

Petitioner Mario Gonzalez filed a habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 contending that his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial was violated when a court officer at his state court trial, unbeknownst to the trial judge, locked the doors to the courtroom for a period that encompassed the testimony of two witnesses. This occurred as the result of a misunderstanding of the unusual procedure described below. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Nina Gershon, Judge) denied the petition on the grounds that the closure was “trivial” and…