Opinion
No. 18-043
01-11-2024
The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Benjamin Hernandez, Defendant-Appellant.
Unpublished Opinion
Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, New York County (David Frey, J.), rendered June 26, 2017, convicting him, upon a plea of guilty, of criminal contempt in the second degree, and imposing sentence.
PRESENT: Hagler, P.J., Brigantti, Tisch, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Judgment of conviction (David Frey, J.), rendered June 26, 2017, affirmed.
Since defendant waived prosecution by information, the facial sufficiency of the accusatory instrument is assessed under the reasonable cause standard applicable to a misdemeanor complaint (see People v Dumay, 23 N.Y.3d 518, 522 [2014]). So viewed, the instrument was jurisdictionally valid because it described facts of an evidentiary nature establishing reasonable cause to believe that defendant was guilty of criminal contempt in the second degree (see Penal Law § 215.50[3]). The arresting officer alleged that on May 7, 2012, defendant was "in court" and signed a five-year order of protection that directed him to have "no contact with Elizabeth Torres in any form whatsoever." The officer further alleged that defendant intentionally disobeyed the order on two occasions, first on February 17, 2017 at 5:15 p.m., when he "slap[ped] [Torres] with an open hand" inside of her apartment, located at a specified address in Manhattan, and again on May 4, 2017 at 8:07 a.m., when he was inside the apartment. These factual allegations gave defendant sufficient notice to prepare a defense and had detail adequate to prevent him from being tried twice for the same offense (see People v Kaplan, 125 A.D.3d 465 [2015], lv denied 25 N.Y.3d 1203 [2015]; People v Ellison, 106 A.D.3d 419 [2013], lv denied 21 N.Y.3d 1004 [2013]). Contrary to defendant's present contention, the instrument sufficiently alleged that the deponent police officer's knowledge of the order of protection and defendant's signature thereon was based upon information conveyed to him by Torres (see generally People v Figueroa, 165 A.D.3d 509 [2018], lv denied 32 N.Y.3d 1171 [2019]). Defendant's guilty plea waived any hearsay defect in the instrument (see People v Keizer, 100 N.Y.2d 114, 121-122 [2003]).