People v Miller
2014 NY Slip Op 00582 [113 AD3d 573]
January 30, 2014
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, March 5, 2014


The People of the State of New York,Respondent,
v
Jerald Miller, Appellant.

[*1]Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Kristina Schwarz of counsel),for appellant.

Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Brian R. Pouliot of counsel), forrespondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Analisa Torres, J.), renderedSeptember 10, 2010, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of attempted criminalcontempt in the second degree, and sentencing him to a conditional discharge withcommunity service, unanimously reversed, on the law, and the information dismissed inthe interest of justice. Appeal from order, same court and Justice, entered on or aboutJune 1, 2011, which denied defendant's CPL 440.10 motion to vacate his conviction,unanimously dismissed as academic.

Defendant contends that his guilty plea should be vacated because he was notinformed of any of his constitutional rights under Boykin v Alabama (395 US238 [1969]). The only question that the judge asked was whether "anybody force[d][him] to plead guilty." While it has been held that no "uniform mandatory catechism" isrequired at a plea (People v Nixon, 21 NY2d 338, 353 [1967], certdenied 393 US 1067 [1969]; People v Tyrell, 22 NY3d —, 2013 NYSlip Op 08288, *4 [2013]), the court's failure to inform defendant of any of hisBoykin rights is an error of constitutional dimension mandating reversal(id. at *5).

We note that defendant fulfilled the conditions of his sentence.Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Andrias, Freedman and Gische, JJ.


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