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DEFENDANT WAS REQUIRED TO WEAR AN ALCOHOL MONITORING DEVICE AS A CONDITION OF PROBATION BUT WAS UNABLE TO PAY FOR IT, THE PEOPLE DID NOT DEMONSTRATE DEFENDANT’S FAILURE TO PAY WAS WILLFUL, THEREFORE COUNTY COURT WAS OBLIGATED TO CONSIDER PUNISHMENT OTHER THAN INCARCERATION (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department, reversing County Court, determined the People did not make a sufficient showing that defendant willfully failed to pay for the alcohol monitoring device (SCRAM bracelet). Wearing the bracelet, which cost $11 per day, was a requirement of defendant’s probation. County Court was obligated to consider punishment other than imprisonment because the evidence supported defendant’s inability to pay:

We agree with defendant that County Court erred in finding that the People established by a preponderance of the evidence that defendant violated the terms and conditions of his probation by willfully refusing to pay or failing to make sufficient good faith efforts to pay the cost of the SCRAM monitoring. …

… .[T]he record lacks a basis to substantiate a finding that defendant willfully refused to make the required payments. Moreover, the hearing testimony establishes that defendant made sufficient bona fide efforts to acquire the fiscal resources to pay the costs associated with SCRAM monitoring and that he could not do so as a result of his indigence, which resulted, at least in part, from the serious injuries that he sustained in August 2013. In our view, County Court was therefore required to “consider alternate measures of punishment other than imprisonment” and erred in failing to do so … . People v Hakes, 2019 NY Slip Op 00324, Third Dept 1-17-19

 

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