People v. Anthony

• Court: New York Supreme Court Appellate Division
• Citation: 591 N.Y.S.2d 181,188 A.D.2d 477
• Parties: The PEOPLE, etc., Respondent, v. Abdul ANTHONY, Appellant.
• Decision Date: 07 December 1992

Page 181

591 N.Y.S.2d 181 188 A.D.2d 477 The PEOPLE, etc., Respondent,
v.
Abdul ANTHONY, Appellant. Supreme Court, Appellate Division,
Second Department. Dec. 7, 1992.

Feldman and Feldman, Hauppauge (Steven A. Feldman, of counsel), for appellant.

James M. Catterson, Jr., Dist. Atty., Riverhead (Glenn Green, of counsel), for respondent.

Before BRACKEN, J.P., and LAWRENCE, MILLER, COPERTINO and SANTUCCI, JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY THE COURT.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Mullen, J.), dated August 15, 1991, convicting him of attempted criminal possession of stolen property in the third degree, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant having failed to move to withdraw his plea or to vacate the judgment of conviction, his current claims of error are not preserved for appellate review (People v. Lopez, 71 N.Y.2d 662, 529 N.Y.S.2d 465, 525 N.E.2d 5; People v. Pellegrino,

Page 182

0 N.Y.2d 636, 467 N.Y.S.2d 355, 454 N.E.2d 938).

In any event, we note that it is entirely proper for the court to conduct the plea allocution, as was done here, with the participation of the prosecuting attorney (People v. Empey, 141 A.D.2d 987, 531 N.Y.S.2d 37). Nor did the defendant's remark at sentencing that he was "forced" to plead guilty because of the overwhelming strength of the evidence against him, constitute a claim of innocence such that the court should have sua sponte held a hearing or offered to permit the defendant to withdraw his plea. Moreover, we note that there is no evidence in the record that the defendant "was in fact innocent or in any way coerced", in the absence of which the plea will not be disturbed (People v. Jackson, 171 A.D.2d 883, 884, 568 N.Y.S.2d 329).