THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v LAWRENCE J. DAME, Appellant
Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York
November 1, 2012
952 N.Y.S.2d 684
In Seрtember 2009, and in full satisfaction of a four-count indictment pending in County Court and five unrelated misdemeanor charges then pending in the Town Cоurt of the Town of Schuyler Falls, Clinton County, defendant pleaded guilty to one count of assault in the second degree and waived his right to аppeal. Notwithstanding the terms of the plea agreement, defendant—accompanied by counsel—thereafter aрpeared in Town Court, inexplicably pleaded guilty to at least some of the still-pending misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to time served. Defendant then moved to withdraw his plea in County Court, contending that the People violated the terms of the agreement by failing to dismiss the misdemeanor charges and “forc[ing]” him to plead guilty thereto.
At sentencing, the People acknowledged that there had been “some sort of mix up” with respect to the handling of the misdemeanor charges and indicated that they would consеnt to a
We affirm. Prеliminarily, based upon our review of the plea colloquy and the written waiver of the right to appeal executed by defendant, we are satisfied that defendant‘s waiver was knowing, intelligent and voluntary (see People v Tolliver, 92 AD3d 1024, 1024 [2012]; People v Empey, 73 AD3d 1387, 1388 [2010], lv denied 15 NY3d 804 [2010]).
Turning to the merits, to the extent that defendant challenges thе factual sufficiency of his plea, any assertion in this regard is foreclosed by his otherwise valid waiver of the right to appeal (see People v Fink, 97 AD3d 974, 975 [2012]; People v Dishaw, 81 AD3d 1035, 1036 [2011], lv denied 16 NY3d 858 [2011]). Although defendant‘s challenge to the voluntariness of his plea survives his waiver of appeal (see People v Robinson, 86 AD3d 719, 720 [2011], lv denied 19 NY3d 966 [2012]), defendant did not move to vacate the judgment of conviction, and his written motion to withdraw his plea was not based upon the grounds now asserted—namely, actual innocence and County Court‘s alleged failure to adequately inquire as to defendant‘s knowledge of potential defenses.1 Accordingly, we find defendant‘s argument on this point to be unpreserved for our review (see People v Campbell, 81 AD3d 1184, 1185 [2011]; People v Young, 81 AD3d 995, 996 [2011], lv denied 16 NY3d 901 [2011]; People v Escalante, 16 AD3d 984, 984-985 [2005], lv denied 5 NY3d 788 [2005]). In any event, defendant did not make any statements during the plea colloquy that negated an element of the crime charged or otherwise called into question his guilt “so as to either trigger the narrow exception to the preservation rule or obligate County Court to inquire whether defendant was awarе of a potential . . . defense” (People v Jones, 73 AD3d 1386, 1387 [2010]; see People v Morgan, 84 AD3d 1594, 1594 [2011], lv denied 17 NY3d 819 [2011]), and the record as a whole reveals that County Court adequately apprised defendant оf the
Nor аre we persuaded that County Court erred in denying defendant‘s motion to withdraw his plea. As to the asserted violation of the plea agreement, although this argument both survives defendant‘s waiver of appeal and is preserved for our review (cf. People v Carter, 64 AD3d 1089, 1091 [2009], lv denied 13 NY3d 835 [2009]), defendant‘s claim thаt the People breached the plea agreement is lacking in merit. As a general rule, where a guilty plea has been inducеd by an unfulfilled promise, the plea must be vacated or the promise must be honored (see People v Parsons, 3 AD3d 790, 791 [2004]). Here, however, the record does not support a finding that the People breached the terms of defendant‘s plea agreement.
Although the precise reаsons for, and circumstances leading up to, defendant‘s decision to plead guilty in Town Court are unclear, the record fails to support defendant‘s conclusory and unsubstantiated assertion that the People “forced” him to plead guilty to the misdemeanor сharges, nor is there any indication that the admitted deviation from the plea agreement was due to malfeasance on thе part of the People. Indeed, the People acknowledged at sentencing that the misdemeanor charges should have been dismissed and indicated that they stood ready to abide by and honor the terms of the plea agreement. Based upon that rеpresentation, County Court denied defendant‘s motion to withdraw his plea.
While County Court arguably should have adjourned sentencing pending vаcatur of the misdemeanor convictions, the failure of all involved to address this issue prior to sentencing does not entitle defеndant to parlay an inadvertent omission into a vacatur of his plea in County Court—particularly where such omission was—and still is—easily rеmedied. As noted previously, the People agreed at sentencing that they would consent to a
Peters, P.J., Lahtinen and Stein, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.