WAIVER OF INDICTMENT AND SUPERIOR COURT INFORMATION (SCI) WERE JURISDICTIONALLY DEFECTIVE, THE SCI DID NOT CONTAIN A CHARGE HELD FOR THE ACTION OF A GRAND JURY OR A LESSER INCLUDED OFFENSE (THIRD DEPT).
The Third Department, reversing defendant’s plea to a superior court information (SCI), determined the SCI did not contain a charge held for the action of a grand jury or a lesser included offense. Therefore the SCI was jurisdictionally defective:
… [T]he waiver of indictment and SCI were jurisdictionally defective because the crime charged in the SCI was not “an[] offense for which . . . defendant was held for action of a grand jury” … , nor was it a lesser included offense of the crimes charged in the felony complaints. On this latter point, “a defendant may waive indictment and plead guilty to an SCI that names a different offense from that charged in the felony complaint only when the crime named in the SCI is a lesser included offense of the original charge”… . “A crime is a lesser included offense of a charge of a higher degree only when in all circumstances, not only in those presented in the particular case, it is impossible to commit the greater crime without concomitantly, by the very same conduct, committing the lesser offense”… .
Reckless endangerment in the first degree is not a lesser included offense of either menacing a police officer or criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree because it would be entirely possible to possess or display the weapons required to commit either of the greater crimes, i.e., menacing a police officer (see Penal Law § 120.18) or criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree … , without concomitantly “recklessly engag[ing] in conduct [that] creates a grave risk of death to another person” — a required element of reckless endangerment in the first degree … . People v Hulstrunk, 2018 NY Slip Op 05234, Third Dept 7-12-18
CRIMINAL LAW (WAIVER OF INDICTMENT AND SUPERIOR COURT INFORMATION (SCI) WERE JURISDICTIONALLY DEFECTIVE, THE SCI DID NOT CONTAIN A CHARGE HELD FOR THE ACTION OF A GRAND JURY OR A LESSER INCLUDED OFFENSE (THIRD DEPT))/WAIVER OF INDICTMENT (WAIVER OF INDICTMENT AND SUPERIOR COURT INFORMATION (SCI) WERE JURISDICTIONALLY DEFECTIVE, THE SCI DID NOT CONTAIN A CHARGE HELD FOR THE ACTION OF A GRAND JURY OR A LESSER INCLUDED OFFENSE (THIRD DEPT))/SUPERIOR COURT INFORMATION (SCI) (WAIVER OF INDICTMENT AND SUPERIOR COURT INFORMATION (SCI) WERE JURISDICTIONALLY DEFECTIVE, THE SCI DID NOT CONTAIN A CHARGE HELD FOR THE ACTION OF A GRAND JURY OR A LESSER INCLUDED OFFENSE (THIRD DEPT))/RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT (WAIVER OF INDICTMENT AND SUPERIOR COURT INFORMATION (SCI) WERE JURISDICTIONALLY DEFECTIVE, THE SCI DID NOT CONTAIN A CHARGE HELD FOR THE ACTION OF A GRAND JURY OR A LESSER INCLUDED OFFENSE (THIRD DEPT))/MENACING A POLICE OFFICER (WAIVER OF INDICTMENT AND SUPERIOR COURT INFORMATION (SCI) WERE JURISDICTIONALLY DEFECTIVE, THE SCI DID NOT CONTAIN A CHARGE HELD FOR THE ACTION OF A GRAND JURY OR A LESSER INCLUDED OFFENSE (THIRD DEPT))