People v. Figueroa

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Juanita Bing Newton, J.), rendered June 3, 1988, which convicted defendant, after jury trial, of two counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and sentenced him to two concurrent 6-to-12-year terms, reversed, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, and the case remanded for a new trial.

Police Officer Samuel Berkman was stationed on narcotics detail in an observation post located in a rear third-floor apartment of a building on East 106th Street on the afternoon of October 6, 1987. Using binoculars, he looked…