People v. Anonymous

2017 NY Slip Op 2509, 148 A.D.3d 647, 49 N.Y.S.3d 294

Opinion

Judgments, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Ethan Green-berg, J.), rendered July 22, 2014, convicting defendant, upon his pleas of guilty, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and burglary in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second drug felony offender, to an aggregate term of three to six years, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant received ample opportunity to make a motion to withdraw his pleas, in a process that extended over many adjournments, in which defendant received the advice of several successive attorneys. The record, as a whole, does not support the conclusion that the court coerced defendant into deciding not to proceed with such a motion. Furthermore, at a time when it was unclear whether defendant still wished to withdraw his pleas, defendant’s ultimate counsel did not take a position adverse to his client by making a simple and accurate statement that a plea withdrawal motion had little chance of success; accordingly, unlike the situation of an actual conflict (see e.g. People v Mitchell, 21 NY3d 964 [2013]), the court was not obligated to relieve this attorney sua sponte.

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.

Concur— Tom, J.P., Moskowitz, Feinman, Gische and Kapnick, JJ.