People v. Smith

*1054Tamara Smith, the bank teller who cashed the check on which the first two counts of the indictment were based, did not testify at trial. We find that the prosecutor’s improper remarks during summation that the defendant could have called her as a witness, and his suggestion that Tamara Smith’s testimony would have corroborated the evidence presented by the People, constituted reversible error with respect to the convictions on those two counts (People v Mirenda, 23 NY2d 439, 457; People v Grice, 100 AD2d 419, 422). The court’s charge that defendant was not required to testify nor present…