Opinion
No. 570107/19
09-12-2024
The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Rafael Santiago, Defendant-Appellant.
Unpublished Opinion
PRESENT: Hagler, P.J., Brigantti, Tisch, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, New York County (Phyllis Chu, J.), rendered January 7, 2019, convicting him, upon a plea of guilty, of assault in the third degree, and imposing sentence.
Judgment of conviction (Phyllis Chu, J.), rendered January 7, 2019, affirmed.
In view of defendant's knowing waiver of the right to 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 third-degree assault (see Penal Law § 120.00). The "physical injury" element of the offense was satisfied by allegations that defendant "str[uck] [the complainant] about the face with a closed fist, causing redness, swelling, and bruising to her right eye and substantial pain." Based on these allegations, a reasonable person could infer that the victim felt "substantial pain" (Penal Law § 10.00[9]; see People v Henderson, 92 N.Y.2d 677, 680 [1999]; People v Mercado, 94 A.D.3d 502 [2012], lv denied 19 N.Y.3d 999 [2012]), a term which simply means "more than slight or trivial pain" (People v Chiddick, 8 N.Y.3d 445, 447 [2007]).
I concur.