| People v Cardenas |
| 2014 NY Slip Op 08855 [123 AD3d 940] |
| December 17, 2014 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Maria F. Cardenas, Appellant. |
Gerald Zuckerman, Ossining, N.Y., for appellant.
Janet DiFiore, District Attorney, White Plains, N.Y. (Adrienne M. Chapoulie andLaurie Sapakoff of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal by the defendant, as limited by her brief, from a sentence of the CountyCourt, Westchester County (Capeci, J.), imposed March 22, 2012, the sentence being adefinite term of incarceration of one year, upon her conviction of criminal trespass in thesecond degree, upon her plea of guilty.
Ordered that the sentence is reversed, on the law, and the matter is remitted to theCounty Court, Westchester County, for further proceedings in accordance herewith.
The defendant contends that her sentence was excessive or, alternatively, improper.Since the defendant has served her one-year term of incarceration, the question ofwhether the one-year sentence was excessive is academic (see People v Nicholson, 31AD3d 468 [2006]). However, the one-year sentence may have collateral immigrationconsequences (see People v Bakare, 280 AD2d 679 [2001]; People vCuaran, 261 AD2d 169 [1999]). Therefore, the question of whether the defendantwas properly sentenced to one year in jail is not academic (see Matter of Jonathan E., 119AD3d 943 [2014]).
Under the circumstances of this case, the County Court's imposition of a one-yearterm of incarceration, after previously pronouncing a sentence of four months ofincarceration, was ineffective. Accordingly, although the defendant has served hersentence of incarceration, we nonetheless remit the matter to the County Court,Westchester County, for correction of the sentence and commitment to reflect that thesentence imposed was four months of incarceration. Hall, J.P., Cohen, Hinds-Radix andLaSalle, JJ., concur.