| People v Opoku |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 02814 [61 AD3d 705] |
| April 7, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Kwame Opoku, Appellant. |
—[*1] Thomas J. Spota, District Attorney, Riverhead, N.Y. (Ronnie Jane Lamm of counsel), forrespondent.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Suffolk County (Kahn, J.),rendered October 30, 2007, convicting him of attempted criminal sale of a controlled substancein the third degree, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The defendant's valid waiver of his right to appeal precludes appellate review of hiscontentions that the sentence imposed was excessive and that he was denied the effectiveassistance of counsel except to the extent that the alleged ineffective assistance involved thevoluntariness of his plea (see People vLopez, 6 NY3d 248, 255 [2006]; People v Seaberg, 74 NY2d 1 [1989]; People v Perez, 51 AD3d 1043[2008]). In any event, by pleading guilty, the defendant forfeited his claims of ineffectiveassistance of counsel which did not directly involve the plea-bargaining process (see Peoplev Petgen, 55 NY2d 529, 535 n 3 [1982]; People v DeLuca, 45 AD3d 777 [2007]; People v Turner, 40 AD3d 1018[2007]; People v Silent, 37 AD3d625 [2007]). To the extent that the defendant is claiming that the ineffective assistance ofcounsel rendered his plea involuntary, the record reveals that the defendant received anadvantageous plea, and nothing in the record casts doubt on the apparent effectiveness of counsel(see People v Ford, 86 NY2d 397, 404 [1995]; People v Baldi, 54 NY2d 137,147 [1981]; People v Gallo, 54AD3d 964, 965 [2008]; People v Boodhoo, 191 AD2d 448 [1993]). Skelos, J.P.,Santucci, Angiolillo, Dickerson and Chambers, JJ., concur.