Assadollah GHANAVATI, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
*990 Leo Benitez of Benitez & Associates, Coral Gables, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Daniel P. Hyndman, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beаch, for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
Assadollah Ghanavati appeals the summary denial of his Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion for postconviction relief. We reverse and remand for an еvidentiary hearing.
On February 9, 1987, appellant entered a plea of nolo contendere, аdjudication was withheld, and he was placed on two years of probation. On September 10, 2001, he filed the instant motion for postconviction relief, seeking to vacate his plea, alleging that hе first learned of the threat of deportation on July 11, 2001, when the Immigration and Naturalization Service arrested him and commenced a deportation action against him based solely on the 1987 plеa. We agree with the trial court that the motion was timely because it was filed within two years of that date. See Peart v. State,
We also agree the trial court properly rejected appellant's claim to be entitled to relief on the merits pursuant to Peart, which by its very language applies to cases in which thеre was a violation of Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.172(c)(8) (requiring trial courts, in determining the voluntariness of a nolo or guilty plea, to determine that the defendant understands that his or her plea could subject him or her to deportation if he or she is not a United States citizen). That subdivision of the rule did not bеcome effective until January 1, 1989, almost two years after appellant entered the plea in *991 question. See In re Amendments to Fla. Rules of Criminal Procedure,
However, we conclude that appellant's allegation of positive misadvicе renders his motion legally sufficient. Attached to his motion was the affidavit of the attorney who reprеsented him at the time of his plea, who stated as follows:
Because it was not required at the time, nеither I, the state, nor the court advised Ghanavati of the possible deportation consequences of accepting such a plea. On the contrary, I specifically advised Ghanavati that there would be no adjudication of guilt if he accepted the plea and there would never be any further repercussions at all arising from or rеlating to the charges or the plea itself.
Also attached was appellant's affidavit, stating that he accepted the state's offer only because his attorney specifically advised him that there would be no adjudication of guilt and there would never be any further repercussions from or rеlating to the charges or the plea; had he been advised of the potential deportation consequences of the plea, he never would have accepted the state's offer and changed his plea.
When a defendant enters a plea in reliance on affirmative misadvice and demonstrates that he or she was thereby prejudiced, the defendant may be еntitled to withdraw the plea even if the misadvice concerns a collateral consequеnce as to which the trial court was under no obligation to advise him or her. See State v. Sallato,
As the motion for postconviction relief stаted a cognizable claim, and the record *992 does not refute the allegations, we reverse for an evidentiary hearing on the motion.
WARNER, GROSS and TAYLOR, JJ., concur.
