WAIVER OF INDICTMENT WAS JURISDICTIONALLY DEFECTIVE BECAUSE IT DID NOT INCLUDE THE TIME AND PLACE OF THE OFFENSE (THIRD DEPT).
The Third Department, reversing defendant’s conviction by guilty plea, determined the waiver of indictment was jurisdictionally defected because the time and place of the offense were not included:
… [A] waiver of indictment must be executed in strict compliance with CPL 195.20, which specifically requires, as is relevant here, that it set forth the “date and approximate time and place of each offense to be charged in the [SCI]” … . Although the statutory requirements of CPL 195.20 may be satisfied by reading the waiver of indictment and the SCI [superior court information] as a single document, here, neither document set forth the time of the charged offense (see CPL 195.20 …). Further, “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” … . Indeed, the felony complaint contains information regarding the time that the offense occurred … . We find unavailing the People’s assertion that reference in the waiver of the indictment to the underlying felony complaint, which contains the time of the offense, to be sufficient to comply with the clear and simple statutorily-required information. In view of the foregoing, the waiver of indictment and the related SCI are jurisdictionally defective, thereby requiring that the plea be vacated and the SCI dismissed … . People v Walley, 2019 NY Slip Op 07816, Third Dept 10-31-19