People v. George

261 A.D.2d 711, 694 N.Y.S.2d 478, 1999 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5333
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMay 13, 1999
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 261 A.D.2d 711 (People v. George) 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.

Bluebook
People v. George, 261 A.D.2d 711, 694 N.Y.S.2d 478, 1999 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5333 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

—Spain, J.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Cortland County (Avery, Jr., J.), rendered March 31, 1998, convicting defendant upon his plea of guilty of the crimes of scheme to defraud in the first degree and grand larceny in the fourth degree.

As part of a negotiated plea agreement, defendant entered a plea of guilty to the crime of scheme to defraud in the first degree, having previously waived indictment and consented to being prosecuted by superior court information (hereinafter SCI). At the plea proceedings, defendant admitted to writing a series of checks to a number of specified businesses over a two-month period knowing there were insufficient funds in his checking account to cover such checks and with intent to [712]*712defraud the payees. Defendant concomitantly, and as part of the same agreement, pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the fourth degree, contained in a separate SCI, in satisfaction of all pending charges stemming from two other incidents. During the plea allocution, County Court conducted an extensive inquiry and informed defendant in detail of his rights and the consequences of a plea. As part of the negotiated plea bargain and as agreed upon at the plea proceedings, defendant waived at sentencing his right to appeal the conviction and sentence but reserved his right to appeal “the length of the sentence”. County Court sentenced defendant, as promised, as a second felony offender to consecutive prison terms of 2 to 4 years on each count and ordered restitution on the scheme to defraud count. Defendant now appeals only from the judgment of conviction upon his guilty plea to scheme to defraud in the first degree.

We affirm. By entering a plea of guilty, defendant forfeited the right to contest the underlying conviction and his right to raise many otherwise reviewable issues on appeal (see, People v Seaberg, 74 NY2d 1, 8; People v Taylor, 65 NY2d 1, 5). Further, a waiver of the right to appeal a conviction and sentence, entered as part of a negotiated plea bargain, is generally enforceable and, indeed, defendant does not contend that either his plea or waiver of appeal rights were involuntarily or unknowingly entered (see, People v Seaberg, supra, at 10-11). Were we to review the facts and circumstances surrounding the guilty plea and waiver in question, we would conclude that their terms and conditions were extensively explained to and comprehended and accepted by defendant, who participated in the colloquy on the record; indeed, defendant entered his plea and waived his right to appeal knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily and as an integral part of the plea agreement (see, id.., at 12; see also, People v Moissett, 76 NY2d 909, 911-912; People v Ubrich, 245 AD2d 886, 887, lv denied 91 NY2d 945; People v Shea, 254 AD2d 512, 513; People v Wilmer, 191 AD2d 850, lv denied 81 NY2d 1022). Importantly, defendant never moved to withdraw or vacate his guilty plea; thus, any challenge to the sufficiency of the plea allocution is not preserved, and the limited circumstances that would allow such an unpreserved challenge are not present here (see, People v Ubrich, supra, at 887; see also, People v Toxey, 86 NY2d 725, 726; People v Lopez, 71 NY2d 662, 665-666).

Defendant contends that the accusatory instrument charging him with scheme to defraud in the first degree did not sufficiently specify the dates, times or locations of the criminal [713]*713acts alleged. While jurisdictional defects in an accusatory instrument are not forfeited by guilty pleas or, presumably, by waivers of appeal rights

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
261 A.D.2d 711, 694 N.Y.S.2d 478, 1999 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5333, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-george-nyappdiv-1999.