Thomas Garcia v. Hazel Lewis, Superintendent, Hale Creek Correctional Facility

MESKILL, Circuit Judge:

Petitioner-appellant Thomas Garcia was convicted by a jury in New York State Supreme Court, Queens County, of one count of possession and sale of narcotics and one count of possession of marijuana. After exhausting his right to direct appeal in the state courts, Garcia petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. He claimed that his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial was violated because his mother’s companion was excluded from the courtroom during the testimony of the undercover officer to whom Garcia allegedly sold drugs during a buy- and-bust…