Opinion
Submitted October 10, 2000.
November 6, 2000.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Suffolk County (Cacciabaudo, J.), rendered March 19, 1997, convicting him of rape in the first degree (two counts), sodomy in the first degree, and assault in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.
Debra Ann Urbano, Amityville, N.Y., for appellant, and appellant pro se.
James M. Catterson, Jr., District Attorney, Riverhead, N.Y. (Glenn Green of counsel), for respondent.
Before: GUY JAMES MANGANO, P.J., DAVID S. RITTER, SONDRA MILLER, HOWARD MILLER, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.
The defendant argues that the Supreme Court deprived him of his constitutional and statutory right to be present at a material stage of the trial and committed reversible error when it allowed the jury, at its request, to view certain trial exhibits in his absence. However, the delivery of the exhibits to the jury was a ministerial act and "[i]t cannot be said that the defendant's presence for [that] aspect of the trial had a reasonably substantial relationship to his opportunity to defend against the charges" (People v. Griffin, 241 A.D.2d 501; see, People v. Harris, 76 N.Y.2d 810; People v. Rodriguez, 192 A.D.2d 731; People v. Murphy, 176 A.D.2d 899).
The defendant's remaining contentions, including those raised in his supplemental pro se brief, are without merit.