Motion to Withdraw Plea Should Have Been Granted

In determining defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea (which had been based in part upon the disposition of another indictment subsequently dismissed) should have been granted, the Second Department wrote:

Defendant pleaded guilty as part of a joint disposition of this case and another case, upon which he would be receiving a concurrent sentence of one year. However, the other indictment was dismissed, with finality, before defendant’s sentencing. The court should have granted defendant’s plea withdrawal motion, made on the ground that the plea had been induced by a promise that was ultimately unfulfilled…. The record establishes that defendant’s plea was induced in large part by the court’s specific representation that defendant was resolving two pending prosecutions. “It simply cannot be said on this record that defendant . . . would have pleaded guilty absent this assurance” …. As the dismissal of the other indictment amounted to a fundamental change in a “condition that induced [defendant’s] admission of guilt” …, he was entitled to withdraw his plea ….  People v Bennett, 2013 NY Slip Op 04714, 1st Dept, 6-20-13