Appeal by the
Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Kings County, for further proceedings in accordance herewith.
The defendant pleaded guilty to burglary in the second degree and criminal trespass in the second degree in exchange for а promise that he would not be sentenced to imprisonment if he succеssfully completed an 18-to-24-month inpatient drug treatment program. He was wаrned that if he failed the program, he would receive a sentence of seven years imprisonment. The defendant was returned to the Supreme Court after it came to the court’s attention that he had relapsed and had been discharged from the treatment program. Based on the dеfendant’s allegations that the treatment program was in disarray and that hе was seeking another program, the Supreme Court ordered a heаring on the circumstances surrounding his discharge.
At the hearing, the defense counsel stated that a counselor formerly with the defendant’s program had been incarcerated and that the counselor had been selling drugs to the program’s patients. Furthermore, she stated that there were allegаtions of pervasive drug problems at the facility, but she had not had an opportunity to investigate. Without making any further inquiry, the Supreme Court, based on the dеfendant’s relapse alone, held that he failed to fulfill his obligation under the plea agreement. Prior to sentencing, the defendant asserted thаt he had not received the treatment and drug-free environment he had bargained for, but rather had been placed in a drug-infested shelter where the residents were not receiving treatment because the counselors were using drugs. Nevertheless, the defendant was sentenced to seven yeаrs imprisonment on the charge of burglary in the second degree. The remaining charge was dismissed.
“[A] plea induced by an unfulfilled promise either must .be vacated or the promise honored” (People v Jackson,
