Opinion
February 14, 1989
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Deeley, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The testimony of a police officer that he had informed the defendant that she had been identified by the complaining witnesses in a pretrial lineup constituted impermissible bolstering of those witnesses' in-court identifications of the defendant (see, People v Trowbridge, 305 N.Y. 471; People v Ray, 127 A.D.2d 859; People v Hall, 82 A.D.2d 838, 839). However, in light of the strength of those in-court identifications, this Trowbridge error was clearly harmless (see, People v Johnson, 57 N.Y.2d 969; People v Mobley, 56 N.Y.2d 584; People v Taylor, 134 A.D.2d 543; People v Williams, 109 A.D.2d 906; cf., People v Grubbs, 112 A.D.2d 104, 104-106).
The defendant's further claim that she was deprived of her constitutional right to counsel of her choice is also meritless. She was represented by assigned counsel at the commencement of a Wade hearing. An attorney appeared before the court during the course of the pretrial Wade hearing, apparently at the behest of the defendant's mother, but produced no retainer agreement. This attorney was obviously unprepared to proceed, either with the Wade hearing or with trial, since he was actually engaged in connection with another matter. The court took reasonable steps in an effort to accommodate this attorney, who never reappeared at any later stage. The court did not improvidently exercise its discretion by refusing to adjourn the case indefinitely in order to accommodate the defendant's last minute effort to substitute counsel, particularly where there was no proof that the incoming attorney was ever formally retained, and where it is far from clear when, if ever, this attorney would have been ready to proceed (see generally, People v Tineo, 64 N.Y.2d 531; People v Arroyave, 49 N.Y.2d 264; People v Sanford, 122 A.D.2d 286). Mollen, P.J., Mangano, Brown and Sullivan, JJ., concur.