Opinion
No. 570069/22
10-10-2024
The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Cleveland Jacobs, Defendant-Appellant.
Unpublished Opinion
PRESENT: TISCH, J.P., JAMES, PEREZ, JJ.
PER CURIAM
Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, New York County (Eric Schumacher, J.), rendered February 23, 2021, convicting him, upon a plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, and imposing sentence.
Judgment of conviction (Eric Schumacher, J.), rendered February 23, 2021, affirmed.
Since defendant waived prosecution by information, 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 accusatory instrument was jurisdictionally valid because it described facts of an evidentiary nature establishing reasonable cause to believe that defendant was guilty of possessing Oxycodone, a controlled substance (see Penal Law § 220.03). The instrument recited that police "recovered [five] Oxycodone pills from the defendant's jacket pocket and $972, in various denominations, from defendant's pants pocket" and that the officer "believe[d] the pills [were] Oxycodone based on [his] training and experience, the shape of the pills, and the marking on them" (see People v Smalls, 26 N.Y.3d 1064 [2015]; People v Kalin, 12 N.Y.3d 225, 231-232 [2009]; People v Pearson, 78 A.D.3d 445 [2010], lv denied 16 N.Y.3d 799 [2011]). At the pleading stage, these allegations supplied defendant "with sufficient notice of the charged crime to satisfy the demands of due process and double jeopardy" (People v Dreyden, 15 N.Y.3d 100, 103 [2010]).