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People v. Donaldson

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.
Oct 3, 2013
110 A.D.3d 1120 (N.Y. App. Div. 2013)

Opinion

2013-10-3

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Timothy P. DONALDSON, Appellant.

Lisa A. Burgess, Indian Lake, for appellant. Nicole M. Duve, District Attorney, Canton (Alexander Lesyk of counsel), for respondent.



Lisa A. Burgess, Indian Lake, for appellant.Nicole M. Duve, District Attorney, Canton (Alexander Lesyk of counsel), for respondent.
Before: ROSE, J.P., STEIN, McCARTHY and GARRY, JJ.

ROSE, J.P.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of St. Lawrence County (Richards, J.), rendered June 15, 2012, which revoked defendant's probation and imposed a sentence of incarceration.

In 2009, defendant pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated and was sentenced to five years of probation. In 2012, he admitted to violating certain conditions of his probation, including the condition prohibiting him from owning or operating any motor vehicles, with the understanding that County Court would sentence him to 90 days in jail and reinstate his probation with additional conditions being imposed. County Court thereafter sentenced defendant pursuant to the agreement and imposed additional conditions, including that defendant dispose of the three motor vehicles he owned in violation of his probation. Defendant appeals.

Defendant's sole contention on appeal is that County Court abused its discretion in imposing the condition requiring him to dispose of his motor vehicles. We disagree. “Conditions of probation are appropriate when the court determines that they are reasonably necessary to insure that the defendant will lead a law-abiding life or to assist him or her in doing so, or are reasonably related to his or her rehabilitation” ( People v. Brown, 62 A.D.3d 1209, 1210, 879 N.Y.S.2d 627 [2009] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]; seePenal Law § 65.10[1], [2]; People v. Hannah, 65 A.D.3d 1378, 1379, 887 N.Y.S.2d 140 [2009],lv. denied13 N.Y.3d 907, 895 N.Y.S.2d 321, 922 N.E.2d 910 [2009];People v. Swenson, 12 A.D.3d 948, 948, 785 N.Y.S.2d 175 [2004] ). Further, a condition may be imposed if the court determines that it is “necessary or appropriate to ameliorate the conduct which gave rise to the offense or to prevent the incarceration of the defendant” (Penal Law § 65.10[5]; see People v. Brown, 62 A.D.3d at 1210, 879 N.Y.S.2d 627). Here, defendant admitted to owning and operating motor vehicles without a driver's license while on probation, despite conditions prohibiting him from such activity. In our view, the additional condition imposed requiring defendant to dispose of his currently-owned motor vehicles is tailored to his offense and is reasonably related to his rehabilitation and necessary to ameliorate the conduct leading to defendant's conviction ( see People v. Hale, 93 N.Y.2d 454, 462, 692 N.Y.S.2d 649, 714 N.E.2d 861 [1999];People v. Franco, 69 A.D.3d 981, 983, 891 N.Y.S.2d 724 [2010] ). Accordingly, we conclude that County Court did not abuse its discretion in imposing the condition.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.

STEIN, McCARTHY and GARRY, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

People v. Donaldson

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.
Oct 3, 2013
110 A.D.3d 1120 (N.Y. App. Div. 2013)
Case details for

People v. Donaldson

Case Details

Full title:The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Timothy P. DONALDSON…

Court:Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.

Date published: Oct 3, 2013

Citations

110 A.D.3d 1120 (N.Y. App. Div. 2013)
110 A.D.3d 1120
2013 N.Y. Slip Op. 6410

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