People v. Holt

• Decision Date: 06 June 1969
• Citation: 300 N.Y.S.2d 624,59 Misc.2d 878
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. J. P. HOLT, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New York County Court

Page 624

300 N.Y.S.2d 624

59 Misc.2d 878

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. J. P. HOLT, Defendant-Appellant.

Orleans County Court.

June 6, 1969.

Hamilton Doherty, Orleans County Dist. Atty., for the People.

Keenan, Carroll, Harris, Creary & Beck, Rochester (Robert L. Beck, Rochester, of counsel), for defendant-appellant.

DECISION

J. KENNETH SERVE , Judge.

On January 23, 1968 the defendant, Holt, was arrested without a warrant for the offense of criminal trespass in the third degree. He was taken by the officer to the Court of Special Sessions of the Town of Carlton, Orleans County, New York (Honorable Clare E. Jones, Justice of the Peace) and there, without counsel, he entered a plea of guilty to such charge. He was sentenced to a term of 15 days in the Orleans County Jail. Subsequently, the sentence was reduced to 3 days.

The defendant in October 1968 instituted a coram nobis proceeding in the Special Sessions Court of the Town of Carlton, Orleans County, New York (Honorable Clare E. Jones, Justice of the Peace) for the purpose of obtaining an order to vacate his January 23, 1968 conviction of criminal trespass in the third degree. A hearing was conducted and thereafter on the 11th day of February 1969 an order was made and entered in the aforementioned Court of Special Sessions which denied the defendant's application for such relief. The defendant has now appealed to this court from the aforementioned order of February 11, 1969.

The defendant claims that when he was arraigned and prior to the entry of his guilty plea, the magistrate failed to properly inform him of his rights to counsel in that he was not informed of his right to assigned counsel. Coram nobis is an appropriate and available proceeding for the defendant, Holt, to present his claim that he was not properly and effectively advised of his right to have counsel assigned to him. (Bojinoff v. People, 299 N.Y. 145, 85 N.E.2d 909; People ex rel. Sedlak v. Foster, 299 N.Y. 291, 86 N.E.2d 782.)

Section 699 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which refers to proceedings in Courts of Special Sessions and Police Courts, provides in paragraph b, subdivision 1 that if the defendant appears without counsel, 'the magistrate must inform him that he has the right to the aid of counsel in every stage of the proceedings * * * that if he desires the aid of counsel and is financially unable to obtain counsel, then counsel shall be assigned.' The magistrate was required not only by statute but by case law (People v. Witenski, 15 N.Y.2d 392, 395, 259 N.Y.S.2d 413, 414, 207 N.E.2d 358, 360) to inform the defendant of the right to assigned counsel. The evidence is clear that the defendant, Holt, was not advised by the magistrate of his right to assigned counsel. Due to the fact that the defendant, Holt, was never effectively and properly informed of his right to have counsel assigned, he did not waive his right to such assigned counsel. Not having been fully and effectively advised by the magistrate of his right to counsel at the time he was arraigned and pled guilty, the defendant, Holt, is now entitled to have judgment of conviction vacated (People v. Byroads, 24 A.D.2d 732, 263 N.Y.S.2d 401.)

In his coram nobis proceeding, the defendant contends that he is entitled to have his judgment of conviction vacated on the additional ground that the Court of Special Sessions of the Town of Carlton had no jurisdiction to arraign him, accept his plea of guilty, and to impose sentence on him.

The offense that the defendant pled guilty to occurred in the Town of Clarendon, Orleans County, New York. However, the defendant was on January 23, 1968, at about 10:45 a.m. arrested without a warrant by a police officer for such offense on the grounds of the Arnold Gregory Hospital on South Main Street in the Village and Town of Albion, Orleans County, New York.

In this case, when the defendant was arrested without a warrant, the officer was required to immediately take him before an available magistrate of a town in Orleans County who was nearest or most accessible to the place where the arrest occurred. (Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.) The provisions of Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure do establish a...