People v. Calvi
| Decision Date | 18 December 1996 |
| Parties | , 675 N.E.2d 843 The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Michael CALVI, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
The order of the Appellate Division should be modified and the case remitted to the Appellate Division for further proceedings in accordance with this memorandum and, as so modified, affirmed.
Defendant was convicted, following a nonjury trial, of multiple counts of bribe receiving, criminal possession of a forged instrument, grand larceny and receiving unlawful gratuities in connection with a municipal corruption scandal, investigation and series of prosecutions in Yonkers, New York. At a presentencing hearing, the Trial Judge, on the record, urged the defendant to cooperate with the New York State Organized Crime Task Force. Defendant began to do so in accordance with a written and signed cooperation agreement, entered into in the presence of and with the advice of his lawyers. Defendant agreed to testify against other targets in exchange for prosecutors bringing his cooperation to the attention of the trial court.
The agreement also contained a provision--the sole reviewable issue on this appeal--by which defendant purported to waive the right to appeal his conviction. No mention of the cooperation agreement or the waiver provision was made at the sentencing hearing, nor does it appear that it was judicially reviewed at all as part of the record. At that time, however, the prosecution did describe defendant's cooperation as "helpful, but not substantial." Though consecutive sentences were authorized, the trial court ultimately sentenced defendant to indeterminate terms of imprisonment, concurrent to Federal sentences. Defendant appealed to the Appellate Division. That Court modified defendant's sentence, but otherwise enforced the waiver of the right to appeal. A Judge of this Court granted leave to appeal, and we now modify by remitting for a determination of the validity of defendant's waiver.
This Court has approved the effectiveness of waivers of the right to appeal, so long as they are voluntary, knowing and intelligent, and "[t]he trial court determines that [the waiver] meets those requirements" (People v. Seaberg, 74 N.Y.2d 1, 11, 543 N.Y.S.2d 968, 541 N.E.2d 1022). In this case, however, because the waiver was never explicitly reviewed or considered by the trial court, so far as the record discloses, the appellate court did not have "a sufficient basis for concluding that defendant's waiver of his right to appeal...
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...the defendant's decision to waive the right to appeal was the product of free and informed deliberation (see People v. Calvi, 89 N.Y.2d 868, 871, 653 N.Y.S.2d 89, 675 N.E.2d 843 ), and the appellate court can reach the same determination upon a review of the record. Additionally, whether or......
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