| People v Singh |
| 2014 NY Slip Op 06215 [120 AD3d 1360] |
| September 17, 2014 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Devendra Singh, Appellant. |
Lynn W.L. Fahey, New York, N.Y. (Barry Stendig of counsel), for appellant.
Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens, N.Y. (John M. Castellano,Johnnette Traill, Daniel Bresnahan, and Tina Grillo of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County(Mullings, J.), rendered April 26, 2012, convicting him of criminal possession of aweapon in the second degree, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The defendant executed a waiver of indictment in 2004 and was charged by superiorcourt information. He pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon in the seconddegree. In 2011, this Court reversed the judgment of conviction and vacated thedefendant's plea of guilty (seePeople v Singh, 90 AD3d 1079 [2011]). In 2012, the defendant again pleadedguilty to criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. On appeal, the defendantasserts that his plea of guilty was invalid because, in 2012, his waiver of his right to beprosecuted by grand jury indictment was not knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligentlymade.
The defendant's 2004 waiver of indictment was valid (see CPL 195.10,195.20; People v Cohen, 47AD3d 828, 828 [2008]; People v Decclesis, 18 AD3d 882, 882 [2005]; People vGonzalez, 299 AD2d 581 [2002]). The waiver was not invalidated by the reversal ofthe original judgment of conviction and the vacatur of his plea of guilty, as the originaljudgment was reversed for reasons unrelated to the validity of the waiver of indictment(see People v Cohen, 47 AD3d at 828; People v Rivera, 24 AD3d 367, 371 [2005]; People vSchultz, 258 AD2d 879, 880 [1999]). When the defendant's original judgment ofconviction was vacated, the superior court information was reinstated (see People vCohen, 47 AD3d at 828; People v Rivera, 24 AD3d at 371; People vSchultz, 258 AD2d at 880). Therefore, in 2012, the defendant pleaded guilty to thecharge in the original superior court information, pursuant to the original waiver ofindictment (see People v Cohen, 47 AD3d at 828). Accordingly, the defendant'scontention that his plea of guilty was invalid because, in 2012, his waiver of his right tobe prosecuted by grand jury indictment was not knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligentlymade, is without merit. Dickerson, J.P., Leventhal, Austin and Hinds-Radix, JJ.,concur.