| People v Brown |
| 2015 NY Slip Op 04523 [128 AD3d 1273] |
| May 28, 2015 |
| Appellate Division, Third Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, vLeonard Brown Jr., Appellant. |
John Ferrara, Monticello, for appellant.
James R. Farrell, District Attorney, Monticello (Katy Schlichtman of counsel), forrespondent.
Garry, J. Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Sullivan County (McGuire,J.), rendered August 23, 2012, convicting defendant upon his plea of guilty of the crimeof assault in the second degree.
Defendant was charged in an indictment with a number of crimes after he struck apolice officer who responded to a noise complaint at a residence that he was visiting. Heretained a private attorney to represent him in the matter. Early in the proceeding, CountyCourt (LaBuda, J.) removed this attorney for alleged incompetence and directed that anattorney from Legal Aid continue defendant's representation. At the court appearancefollowing such removal, County Court recused itself from presiding over the rest of theproceeding. The case was reassigned to a new judge (McGuire, J.) and defendant wasbriefly represented by an attorney from Legal Aid. Defendant expressed his desire tohave his private attorney represent him and that attorney was reinstated for the remainderof the proceeding. Defendant ultimately pleaded guilty to assault in the second degree infull satisfaction of the indictment and waived his right to appeal, both orally and inwriting.[FN*] Inaccordance with the plea agreement, he was sentenced as a second felony offender tothree years in prison, to be followed by five years of postrelease supervision. Defendantnow appeals.
[*2] Defendant's solecontention is that his counsel was ineffective, which deprived him of meaningfulrepresentation under both federal and state law (see generally Strickland vWashington, 466 US 668 [1984]; People v Baldi, 54 NY2d 137 [1981]).Significantly, defendant does not assert that his counsel's alleged ineffectivenessimpacted the voluntariness of his guilty plea. Consequently, his claim is barred by hisvalid waiver of the right to appeal (see People v Monroe, 125 AD3d 1048, 1049 [2015], lvdenied 25 NY3d 991 [Apr. 2, 2015]; People vLamont, 125 AD3d 1106, 1106 [2015]). Even if we were to construe some ofcounsel's alleged deficiencies as impacting the voluntariness of defendant's plea, hisargument has not been preserved for our review given the absence of any indication inthe record that defendant made an appropriate postallocution motion (see People v Turner, 126AD3d 1228, 1229 [2015]; People v Cooper, 126 AD3d 1046, 1047 [2015]).Therefore, we decline to disturb the judgment of conviction.
Lahtinen, J.P., McCarthy and Rose, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment isaffirmed.
Footnote *:During the pleacolloquy, defendant expressed his satisfaction with his attorney's representation.