| People v Bratton |
| 2018 NY Slip Op 06554 [165 AD3d 693] |
| October 3, 2018 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Marc Bratton, Appellant. |
Paul Skip Laisure, New York, NY (Charity L. Brady of counsel), for appellant.
Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens, NY (John M. Castellano, JohnnetteTraill, and Anastasia Spanakos of counsel; Eleanor Reilly on the memorandum), forrespondent.
Appeal by the defendant, as limited by his motion, from a sentence of the Supreme Court,Queens County (Stephanie Zaro, J.), imposed March 21, 2017, upon his plea of guilty, on theground that the sentence was excessive.
Ordered that the sentence is affirmed.
"A defendant's valid waiver of the right to appeal includes waiver of the right to invoke theAppellate Division's interest-of-justice jurisdiction to reduce the sentence" (People v Lopez, 6 NY3d 248, 255[2006]). Under the circumstances of this case, the defendant's purported waiver of his right toappeal was invalid (see People vBradshaw, 18 NY3d 257, 264 [2011]; People v Sanders, 162 AD3d 690 [2018]). The record does notdemonstrate that the defendant understood the distinction between the right to appeal he wasasked to forfeit as a condition of the plea agreement and other trial rights he automaticallyforfeited upon his plea of guilty (seePeople v Medina, 161 AD3d 778, 779 [2018]; People v Santeramo, 153 AD3d 1286, 1286-1287 [2017]). Further,although the defendant allegedly signed a written waiver of his right to appeal, the written waiveris not included in the record. Moreover, the Supreme Court did not ascertain on the recordwhether the defendant read the written waiver or was aware of its contents (see People vMedina, 161 AD3d at 779; People vBrown, 122 AD3d 133, 145 [2014]). Since the defendant's purported waiver of his rightto appeal was invalid, this Court is not precluded from reviewing the defendant's excessivesentence claim.
However, the sentence imposed was not excessive (see People v Suitte, 90 AD2d 80[1982]). Leventhal, J.P., Austin, Cohen, Barros and Christopher, JJ., concur.