Opinion
03-30-2017
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. ANONYMOUS, Defendant–Appellant.
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Brittany N. Francis of counsel), for appellant. Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (Lori Ann Farrington of counsel), for respondent.
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Brittany N. Francis of counsel), for appellant.
Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (Lori Ann Farrington of counsel), for respondent.
Judgments, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Ethan Greenberg, J.), rendered July 22, 2014, convicting defendant, upon his pleas of guilty, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and burglary in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second drug felony offender, to an aggregate term of three to six years, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant received ample opportunity to make a motion to withdraw his pleas, in a process that extended over many adjournments, in which defendant received the advice of several successive attorneys. The record, as a whole, does not support the conclusion that the court coerced defendant into deciding not to proceed with such a motion. Furthermore, at a time when it was unclear whether defendant still wished to withdraw his pleas, defendant's ultimate counsel did not take a position adverse to his client by making a simple and accurate statement that a plea withdrawal motion had little chance of success; accordingly, unlike the situation of an actual conflict (see e.g. People v. Mitchell, 21 N.Y.3d 964, 970 N.Y.S.2d 919, 993 N.E.2d 405 [2013] ), the court was not obligated to relieve this attorney sua sponte.
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.
TOM, J.P., MOSKOWITZ, FEINMAN, GISCHE, KAPNICK, JJ., concur.