WAIVER OF INDICTMENT JURISDICTIONALLY DEFECTIVE; IT DID NOT INCLUDE THE APPROXIMATE TIME OF THE OFFENSE (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department vacated the plea and waiver of indictment because the approximate of the offense was not included in the waiver:

… [D]efendant contends that her waiver of indictment is jurisdictionally defective because it did not contain the “approximate time” of the offense (CPL 195.20). We agree. A jurisdictionally valid waiver of indictment must contain, inter alia, the “approximate time” of each offense charged in the superior court information (SCI) … . “The law demands strict and literal compliance with the constitutional and statutory framework for waiving indictment” … . ” [S]ubstantial compliance [with CPL 195.20] will not be tolerated’ ” … because “compliance with [its] literal terms . . . is the sine qua non of the voluntariness of an indictment waiver” … . Here, as the People correctly concede, the waiver of indictment does not contain the approximate time of the offense … . Moreover, we note that this is not a case ” where the time of the offense is unknown or, perhaps, unknowable’ so as to excuse the absence of such information” … . People v Kerce, 2019 NY Slip Op 08310, Fourth Dept 11-15-19