People v Watson
2015 NY Slip Op 01826 [126 AD3d 731]
March 4, 2015
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, April 29, 2015


[*1]
 The People of the State of New York,Respondent,
v
Robert Watson III, Appellant.

Robert C. Mitchell, Riverhead, N.Y. (Alfred J. Cicale of counsel), for appellant.

Thomas J. Spota, District Attorney, Riverhead, N.Y. (Edward A. Bannan of counsel),for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant, as limited by his motion, from a sentence of the SupremeCourt, Suffolk County (Cohen, J.), imposed September 28, 2011.

Ordered that the sentence is affirmed.

The defendant's purported waiver of his right to appeal was invalid (see People v Bradshaw, 18NY3d 257, 267 [2011]; People v Lopez, 6 NY3d 248, 256-257 [2006]) and, thus,does not preclude review of his claim that his sentence was excessive. However, thesentence imposed was not excessive (see People v Suitte, 90 AD2d 80[1982]).

There is no relief that this Court can afford the defendant in connection with hisrequest for a so-called "violent felony override" (see People v Lynch, 121 AD3d 717 [2014]). While thedefendant's conviction of vehicular manslaughter in the first degree (Penal Law§ 125.13) appears to render him ineligible for the temporary releaseprogram at issue (see 7 NYCRR 1900.4 [c] [2] [ii]), "[i]t is for [the Departmentof Corrections and Community Supervision], and not the court or the district attorney, todetermine whether conviction under a particular section and subdivision disqualifies aninmate from eligibility" (People v Lynch, 121 AD3d at 718; see generally7 NYCRR 1900.4). Eng, P.J., Balkin, Dickerson, Chambers and Hinds-Radix, JJ.,concur.


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