| People v Worden |
| 2012 NY Slip Op 00615 [91 AD3d 1340] |
| January 31, 2012 |
| Appellate Division, Fourth Department |
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Robert L.Worden, Appellant. |
[*1]Appeal from a judgment of the Monroe County Court (Alex R. Renzi, J.), renderedSeptember 2, 2008. The judgment convicted defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of rape in thethird degree.
It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed.
Memorandum: Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him, following his plea ofguilty, of rape in the third degree (Penal Law 130.25 [3]). Defendant contends that County Courterred in denying his motion to withdraw his plea because he did not understand the nature of thecharge to which he pleaded guilty and thus the plea was not knowingly, voluntarily andintelligently entered. That ground in support of the motion to withdraw the plea is raised for thefirst time on appeal, however, and thus is not preserved for our review (see CPL 470.05 [2]).Rather, defendant's motion was based on a purported recantation by the victim. We conclude thatthe court properly denied defendant's motion to withdraw his plea on that ground because, as thecourt properly noted, recantations are inherently unreliable (see People v Nichols, 302 AD2d 954[2003], lv denied 99 NY2d 657 [2003]). In any event, the court further noted that the victim'srecantation was "equivocal at best." To the extent that defendant may be deemed to challenge thefactual sufficiency of the plea allocution, we note that he had failed to preserve his contention forour review (see People v Lopez, 71 NY2d 662, 665 [1988]), and this case does not fall within therare exception to the preservation requirement (see id. at 666). Furthermore, to the extent thatdefendant's further contention that he was denied effective assistance of counsel survives his pleaof guilty (see People v Carmody, 90 AD3d 1526 [2011]), we conclude that it lacks merit (seegenerally People v Ford, 86 NY2d 397, 404 [1995]). Present Scudder, P.J., Smith, Sconiers,Gorski and Martoche, JJ.