| People v Bilus |
| 2007 NY Slip Op 07338 [44 AD3d 325] |
| October 4, 2007 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v MarkL. Bilus, Appellant. |
—[*1] Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Sylvia Wertheimer of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgments, Supreme Court, New York County (Budd G. Goodman, J., at plea; Richard D.Carruthers, J., at sentence), rendered on or about January 20, 2006, convicting defendant ofcriminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree and forgery in the second degree, andsentencing him, as a second felony offender, to consecutive terms of 2½ to 5 years and 2 to4 years, respectively, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant made a valid waiver of his right to appeal, both orally and in writing (see People v Ramos, 7 NY3d 737[2006]), which forecloses review of his excessive sentence claim. The court expresslyascertained from defendant that, as a condition of the plea, he was agreeing to waive his right toappeal, and the court did not treat that right as one of the rights automatically forfeited by a guiltyplea (see People v Lopez, 6 NY3d248, 256-257 [2006]; comparePeople v Moyett, 7 NY3d 892 [2006]). On the contrary, the court clearly informeddefendant that he would not be allowed to accept the plea offer unless he also chose to waive hisright to appeal. Were we to find otherwise, we would nevertheless find no basis for reducing thesentence (see People v Callahan, 80 NY2d 273, 285 [1992]). Concur—Andrias,J.P., Sullivan, Catterson, McGuire and Malone, JJ.