THE JUDGE SHOULD HAVE HELD A HEARING TO DETERMINE THE AMOUNT OF RESTITUTION, MATTER REMITTED (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department determined County Court should have held a hearing on the amount of restitution and remitted the matter:
Penal Law § 60.27 (2) provides in relevant part that, when a court requires restitution to be made, “[i]f the record does not contain sufficient evidence to support such finding or upon request by the defendant, the court must conduct a hearing” … . Here, contrary to the assertion of the People, defendant made a timely request for a restitution hearing inasmuch as he requested a hearing before the court made its determination on restitution. The court never ordered a specific amount of restitution at sentencing, and the People did not prepare the order of restitution setting forth the amount requested until the following week. Defendant raised issues with the amount and requested a hearing. Upon defendant’s request, the court was required to conduct a hearing “irrespective of the level of evidence in the record” to support the amount of restitution … . People v Osborn, 2021 NY Slip Op 05426, Fourth Deptp 10-8-21
