People v. Mandrachio

OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed.

The defendant’s contention that the police failed to scrupulously honor his right to remain silent was not raised in the trial court and thus has not been preserved for review. Nor in the context of this record can it be said, as a matter of law, that the prosecutor should have interpreted the defendant’s remark that he could not afford an attorney as a request for assigned counsel. Significantly the defendant himself did not suggest that his comment should be so construed until the case was on appeal.

We…