Opinion
570578/19
09-21-2021
The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Eugene Niemczynski, Defendant-Appellant.
Unpublished Opinion
Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, New York County (Michael J. Gaffey, J.), rendered April 25, 2019, convicting him, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal mischief in the fourth degree, and imposing sentence.
PRESENT: Edmead, P.J., Brigantti, Hagler, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Judgment of conviction (Michael J. Gaffey, J.) rendered April 25, 2019, affirmed.
The record as a whole established that the plea was knowing, intelligent and voluntary. Defendant waived formal allocution, admitted his guilt to the charged offense, stated that he had time to discuss his case with counsel, and waived specific constitutional rights, including his rights to trial, to call witnesses and to confront the People's witnesses (People v Conceicao, 26 N.Y.3d 375 [2015]; People v Sougou, 26 N.Y.3d 1052 [2015]). The plea court's duty to inquire was not triggered by defendant's postarrest statements that may have negated an element of the criminal mischief charge at issue, since defendant "did not reiterate those statements at [the] plea allocution" (People v Martorell, 88 A.D.3d 485 [2011], lv denied 18 N.Y.3d 926 [2012][internal citation omitted]; see also People v Sosa, 172 A.D.3d 432, 433 [2019]).
In any event, the only relief defendant requests is dismissal of the accusatory instrument rather than vacatur of the plea, and he expressly requests that this Court affirm the conviction if it does not grant a dismissal. Because we do not find that dismissal would be appropriate, we affirm on this basis as well (see People v Teron, 139 A.D.3d 450 [2016]).