JUDGE SHOULD NOT HAVE VACATED DEFENDANT’S GUILTY PLEA OVER DEFENDANT’S OBJECTION 2ND DEPT.

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the sentencing judge should not have vacated defendant’s guilty plea. Under the plea bargain defendant was promised an 18-year sentence. After trial he was sentenced to 50 years. Although defendant indicated he didn’t remember the underlying events because he was intoxicated, both he and his attorney objected when the judge vacated the plea:

“[I]n the absence of fraud, misrepresentation, deceit, or trickery, courts have no inherent power to set aside a plea of guilty absent the defendant’s consent other than to correct their own mistakes” … . Moreover, a court may not vacate a plea over a defendant’s objection … .

Here, the People fail to identify, nor is there apparent, any error or mistake made by the Supreme Court in accepting the defendant’s plea. Nor is there any evidence of fraud, misrepresentation, deceit, or trickery presented on this record … .. The defendant’s statements to the probation department to the effect that he was intoxicated and did not remember what had occurred on the night of the shootings cannot be said to constitute consent on the part of the defendant to the vacatur of his plea of guilty and the reinstatement of his plea of not guilty … . Further, notwithstanding the court’s conclusion and the People’s assertion to the contrary, in response to the court’s questioning as to whether the defendant wished to proceed to trial and assert an intoxication defense, the defendant merely indicated that he had wished to do so in the past, not that he wished to withdraw the plea and go to trial now. Nor did the defendant unequivocally inform the court that he had been coerced into pleading guilty … . Instead, the record shows that, when the court stated that it would strike the plea and set the matter down for trial, the defendant and his attorney immediately protested, but the court overruled their objections and moved on. The court erred in vacating the plea over the defendant’s objections … . People v Brown, 2017 NY Slip Op 05748, 2nd Dept 7-19-17

CRIMINAL LAW (JUDGE SHOULD NOT HAVE VACATED DEFENDANT’S GUILTY PLEA OVER DEFENDANT’S OBJECTION)/GUILTY PLEA, VACATION OF (JUDGE SHOULD NOT HAVE VACATED DEFENDANT’S GUILTY PLEA OVER DEFENDANT’S OBJECTION)