People v. Martinez

Defendant, convicted of selling a vial of crack to an undercover officer for five dollars, has not preserved his claim that he was prejudiced at trial by proof of other crimes. Although he did object at trial to the proof of "citizens’ complaints” on the ground of irrelevance, such constituted limited background material that was admissible to explain why the team chose to conduct a buy-and-bust operation in the area where it came upon defendant (People v Colon, 172 AD2d 173, 174, affd 78 NY2d 998). In any event, the complaints were not linked to defendant, and in light of the evidence of the…