People v. Richardson

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Norma Ruiz, J.), rendered February 17, 2000, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near school grounds, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 7 to 14 years, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the matter remanded for a new trial.

The trial court’s exclusion of defendant’s children, ages eight and nine, from the courtroom violated defendant’s right to a public trial, there being no support in the record for the contention that these children were being disruptive…