People v. Cortez
This text of 2025 NY Slip Op 04104 (People v. Cortez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
Opinion
People v Cortez (2025 NY Slip Op 04104)
| People v Cortez |
| 2025 NY Slip Op 04104 |
| Decided on July 9, 2025 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
| This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports. |
Decided on July 9, 2025 SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department
VALERIE BRATHWAITE NELSON, J.P.
WILLIAM G. FORD
HELEN VOUTSINAS
LAURENCE L. LOVE, JJ.
2020-08283
(Ind. No. 1295/18)
v
Julio Cortez, appellant.
Lisa H. Blitman, New York, NY, for appellant.
Melinda Katz, Special District Attorney, Kew Gardens, NY (Johnnette Traill, Nancy Fitzpatrick Talcott, and Nicholas Isaacson of counsel), for respondent.
DECISION & ORDER
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Barry E. Warhit, J.), rendered September 25, 2020, convicting him of course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence.
ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.
The decision to permit a defendant to withdraw a previously entered plea of guilty rests within the sound discretion of the court (see CPL 220.60[3]; People v Fisher, 28 NY3d 717, 721; People v Alexander, 97 NY2d 482, 485). "In general, such a motion must be premised upon some evidence of possible innocence or of fraud, mistake, coercion or involuntariness in the taking of the plea" (People v Spring, 222 AD3d 665, 666 [internal quotation marks omitted]). Here, contrary to the defendant's contention, the record demonstrates that his plea was entered knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily (see id.; People v Flores, 216 AD3d 815, 815-816; People v Harris, 166 AD3d 801, 801). The defendant's postplea statements of innocence were unsubstantiated and belied by the plea allocution and his admissions to law enforcement officers (see People v Najera, 170 AD3d 753, 754).
The defendant's remaining contention is without merit.
BRATHWAITE NELSON, J.P., FORD, VOUTSINAS and LOVE, JJ., concur.
ENTER:Darrell M. Joseph
Clerk of the Court
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