ANY CHALLENGE BASED ON A DEFECT IN THE SUPERIOR COURT INFORMATION AND WAIVER OF APPEAL FOR FAILURE TO SET FORTH THE DATE AND TIME OF THE OFFENSE WAIVED BY THE GUILTY PLEA; THE PLEA WAS INVALID BECAUSE OF THE INCOMPLETE COLLOQUY (THIRD DEPT).
The Third Department, vacating defendant’s guilty plea, determined the plea colloquy did not demonstrate defendant fully understood and voluntarily waived his right to trial. The court noted that the failure to set forth the date and time of the offense in the superior court information (SCI) and the waiver of indictment was not a jurisdictional defect and any related error was not preserved for appeal and was forfeited by the guilty plea:
Notwithstanding the omission of the date and approximate time of the offense, the waiver of indictment and the SCI, together with the underlying accusatory instruments prepared in connection with the incident, gave defendant reasonable notice of the felony sex crime with which he was being charged. In light of this, as well as the absence of any indication that defendant raised an objection before County Court to the sufficiency of the waiver of indictment or the SCI, or requested a bill of particulars, defendant’s challenge to the waiver of indictment and the SCI was forfeited by his guilty plea … . …
Preliminarily, we note that defendant’s challenge to the voluntariness of the plea is not precluded by his appeal waiver … and was preserved by his unsuccessful postallocution motion to withdraw his plea … . During the plea proceedings, County Court advised defendant that he was giving up a number of important rights by pleading guilty, including the right “to take the case to trial,” the “right to cross-examine people who testified against you,” and “the right to testify yourself or call your own witnesses.” The court further explained that he could not be convicted at trial unless the People proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty of the crime. The court, however, failed to mention the privilege against self-incrimination or ascertain whether defendant conferred with counsel regarding the trial-related rights that he was waiving and the constitutional consequences of entering a guilty plea … . Absent an affirmative showing that defendant fully understood and voluntarily waived his trial-related constitutional rights, the plea was invalid and must be vacated … . People v Oliver, 2020 NY Slip Op 03697, Third Dept 7-2-20