People v. Gould

242 A.D.2d 583, 662 N.Y.S.2d 520, 1997 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8713
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedSeptember 15, 1997
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 242 A.D.2d 583 (People v. Gould) 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. Gould, 242 A.D.2d 583, 662 N.Y.S.2d 520, 1997 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8713 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Westchester County (Lange, J.), rendered January 16, 1996, convicting him of sodomy in the second degree, upon his plea of guilty, and sentencing him to five years probation.

Ordered that the matter is remitted to the County Court, Westchester County, to hear and report on whether the condition of the sentence of probation which precludes the defendant from reuniting with his family in Connecticut without permission of his “counselor and probation officer” should be stricken, and the appeal is held in abeyance in the interim. The County Court, Westchester County, is to file its report with all convenient speed.

[584]*584The defendant’s contention that the waiver of indictment was ineffective and that the superior court information was therefore jurisdictionally defective is without merit. The record of the court proceedings on February 6, 1995, establishes that the defendant knowingly and voluntarily waived a felony hearing and then was held “for the action of the grand jury” by the County Court, acting as a local criminal court (CPL 195.10 [1] [a]). The defendant signed a written waiver of indictment whereby he consented to be prosecuted by a superior court information and pleaded guilty to the sole charge contained therein (see, CPL 180.30, 195.20; see also, People v D’Amico, 76 NY2d 877; People v Hart, 171 AD2d 755; People v Washington, 138 AD2d 857).

We further conclude that the accusatory instrument adequately apprised the defendant of the particular crime with which he was being charged (see, People v Ray, 71 NY2d 849; People v Motley, 69 NY2d 870; People v Iannone, 45 NY2d 589). The defendant’s nonjurisdictional challenges to the accusatory instrument were forfeited by his guilty plea (see, People v Beattie, 80 NY2d 840; People v Taylor, 65 NY2d 1; People v Gerber, 182 AD2d 252).

The defendant’s remaining contention is that three conditions of probation imposed at sentencing were illegal because they are punitive rather than rehabilitative. These conditions require the defendant (1) to obtain permission from his parole officer to reunite with his immediate family in Connecticut, (2) to present a “travel letter” to the local police department, which must be signed and returned to his probation officer, when he travels to “another jurisdiction,” and (3) to inform any future employer and the police department where he resides of the nature of his conviction and the special conditions of probation which prohibit him from associating with persons under 18 years of age.

Under Penal Law § 65.10 (2), the court may not, under the guise of rehabilitation, impose conditions which are predominantly punitive and deterrent, rather than rehabilitative (see, People v Letterlough, 86 NY2d 259; People v McNair, 87 NY2d 772). However, apart from the court’s authority to impose conditions relating to rehabilitation, Penal Law § 65.10 (3) requires the court to impose certain conditions relating to supervision, and CPL 410.50 (2) imposes a duty on the probation department to supervise the defendant during his period of probation.

Penal Law § 65.10 (3) (b) provides that the defendant shall remain within the court’s jurisdiction unless the court or proba[585]*585tion officer grants him permission to travel. Since the defendant does not have an unfettered right to travel, it is reasonable for the probation department, upon granting him such permission, to fulfill its supervisory duty by requiring him to report to the local police department.

We conclude, as well, that the conditions of probation which require him to report his conviction to the police department in the community where he resides and to a future employer, should he change his current employment, are primarily rehabilitative and supervisory, rather than punitive. We note that the defendant does not contest certain other special conditions of probation which prohibit him from frequenting locations where persons under the age of 18 are likely to be present and from working in any business which provides services to or employs such persons.

However, that there may be some merit to the defendant’s contention that the condition which requires him to obtain permission from his parole officer each and every time he visits his brother’s family is punitive, rather than supervisory or rehabilitative. We therefore remit the matter to the County Court, Westchester County, to determine whether this condition of probation is appropriate in light of People v Letterlough (supra) and People v McNair (supra). O’Brien, J. P., Altman and Krausman, JJ., concur.

Friedmann, J., concurs in part and dissents in part and votes to modify the judgment appealed from by striking the following conditions of probation: the condition that the defendant may not reunite with his family unit without the permission of his counselor or probation officer, the condition that he must present a travel letter when he travels to a jurisdiction outside his home county, the condition that he must disclose to any police department and any prospective employer where he resides, the nature of his conviction and the special conditions of his probation, and the condition that he must inform his landlord of his conviction; and to otherwise affirm the judgment appealed from, with the following memorandum: Because several of the conditions of the defendant’s probation are fundamentally punitive and/or supervisory rather than rehabilitative, they are palpably illegal and should be summarily deleted from his probationary schedule. Otherwise I concur with the majority that the defendant’s conviction should be affirmed.

Penal Law § 65.10 provides that a defendant may be required, as a condition of his probation, inter alia, to avoid the occasion of his “vicious habits”, hold a regular job, undergo therapy and/or psychiatric treatment, join an intervention program, make restitution, and/or perform public service.

[586]*586In People v Letterlough (86 NY2d 259), the Court of Appeals invalidated a condition of probation that required the defendant to affix to his license plate a sign reading “CONVICTED DWI”, because the sentencing court’s “true design was not to advance defendant’s rehabilitation, but rather to ‘warn the public’ of the threat presented by his presence behind the wheel” (People v Letterlough, supra, at 266). The Court observed that “public disclosure of a person’s crime, and the attendant humiliation and public disgrace, has historically been regarded strictly as a form of punishment” (People v Letterlough, supra, at 266). Indeed, the Court declared, imposition of this “scarlet letter” condition could well “negate any positive effect derived from the imposition of other therapeutic conditions”, such as his participation in rehabilitation programs, because “the forced advertisement of a probationer’s * * * conviction is inconsistent with the need for confidentiality which is ordinarily deemed a mandatory component of such treatment programs” (People v Letterlough, supra, at 266). Citing New Jersey’s Megan’s Law (the equivalent of which has since been enacted in New York State—legislation which would arguably have been applicable here had it been the law at the time of this defendant’s conviction), the Court underscored that a defendant’s prior convictions should be publicly disclosed only subject to “controlled conditions”.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

People v. Curtin
2025 NY Slip Op 04339 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2025)
People v. Cardona-Velasquez
2017 NY Slip Op 5617 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2017)
People v. Crump
112 A.D.3d 735 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2013)
People v. Velardi
10 Misc. 3d 47 (Appellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York, 2005)
People v. K.D.
2004 NY Slip Op 24263 (New York Supreme Court, Kings County, 2004)
People v. K.D.
4 Misc. 3d 776 (New York Supreme Court, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
242 A.D.2d 583, 662 N.Y.S.2d 520, 1997 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8713, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-gould-nyappdiv-1997.