SUPERIOR COURT INFORMATION DID NOT INCLUDE THE APPROXIMATE TIME OF THE OFFENSE, GUILTY PLEA VACATED (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department, reversing County Court, determined the superior court information (SCI) to which defendant pled guilty was invalid because it did not include the approximate time of the offense. The guilty plea was vacated:

Defendant contends that the waiver of indictment was deficient, requiring that the guilty plea be vacated, because there was not strict compliance with the statutory mandates of CPL 195.20. Specifically, defendant asserts that the superior court information (hereinafter SCI) does not set forth the “approximate time” of the offense nor does the record establish that the waiver of indictment was signed by defendant in open court … . With regard to the approximate time of the offense, such information, which is required by the plain language of the statute, was omitted from the SCI . Furthermore, this is not “a situation where the time of the offense is unknown or, perhaps, unknowable” so as to excuse the absence…  of such information … . As we have previously noted, “[a]ny other interpretation would render the statute’s language requiring the ‘approximate time’ superfluous or redundant” … . Inasmuch as defendant’s waiver of indictment was not procured in strict compliance with the statutory provisions, it is invalid, thereby requiring vacatur of his guilty plea and dismissal of the SCI … . People v Edwards, 2019 NY Slip Op 03108, Third Dept 4-25-19