Opinion
No. 571050/18
05-10-2023
The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Stephanie Lopez, Defendant-Appellant.
Unpublished Opinion
MOTION DEICISON
PRESENT: Hagler, P.J., Tisch, Michael, JJ.
Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, Bronx County (Julio Rodriguez III, J.), rendered September 17, 2018, convicting her, upon her plea of guilty, of assault in the third degree, and imposing sentence.
PER CURIAM.
Judgment of conviction (Julio Rodriguez III, J.), rendered September 17, 2018, affirmed.
Since defendant waived prosecution by information, the accusatory instrument only had to satisfy the reasonable cause requirement of 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 assault in the third degree (see Penal Law § 120.00[1]). The instrument recites that defendant, while robbing the victim with a gun, "struck" him "repeatedly" in the "face and body with an open hand," causing him to "suffer redness and substantial pain to his face." Giving these allegations "a fair and not overly restrictive or technical reading" (People v Casey, 95 N.Y.2d 354, 360 [2000]), we find "as a matter of common sense and reasonable pleading" (People v Davis, 13 N.Y.3d 17, 31 [2009]), that they were sufficient at the pleading stage to support a finding that the defendant's actions constituted more than mere "petty slaps, shoves, kicks and the like delivered out of hostility, meanness and similar motives" (Matter of Philip A., 49 N.Y.2d 198, 200 [1980]; see People v Henderson, 92 N.Y.2d 677 [1999]), and that they caused "more than slight or trivial pain" (People v Chiddick, 8 N.Y.3d 445, 447 [2007]; see also People v Guidice, 83 N.Y.2d 630, 636 [1994]). Defendant's intent to cause physical injury was inferable from her actions (see Matter of Edward H., 61 A.D.3d 473 [2009]; Matter of Joseph J., 299 A.D.2d 235 [2002]).