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People v. Santana

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Jun 5, 1989
151 A.D.2d 518 (N.Y. App. Div. 1989)

Opinion

June 5, 1989

Appeal from the County Court, Nassau County (Belfi, J.).


Ordered that the judgments are affirmed.

The defendant failed to raise his objections to the adequacy of his plea allocution in the County Court, and, accordingly, has not preserved his claim for appellate review (see, People v Pellegrino, 60 N.Y.2d 636; People v. Banks, 117 A.D.2d 611). A reversal in the interest of justice is not warranted. The defendant, with the advice of counsel, freely negotiated this plea bargain disposing of two separate indictments. The charges under indictment No. 61997 included the class A-I felony of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first degree predicated upon defendant's active participation in the sale of over one pound of cocaine. The plea bargain enabled the defendant to avoid the possible imposition of a much longer period of incarceration (see, People v. Greenridge, 129 A.D.2d 585; People v. Soto, 111 A.D.2d 836). A review of the record discloses that the defendant's pleas of guilty to two class A-II felonies were neither improvident nor baseless.

We also reject the defendant's contention that his pleas of guilty were not voluntarily and intelligently made due to his unfamiliarity with the English language. This argument is unavailing in view of the fact an interpreter was present throughout the plea proceedings (see, People v. Herrera, 107 A.D.2d 1040). Moreover, the defendant's claim, belatedly raised for the first time on appeal, that he misunderstood the sentence promise is belied by the record. "Compliance with a plea bargain is to be tested against an objective reading of the bargain, and not against a defendant's subjective interpretation thereof. A contrary holding would permit any defendant to withdraw his plea of guilty solely because he was disappointed with the sentence received, even though the court has kept its word in that respect" (People v. Cataldo, 39 N.Y.2d 578, 580). Since an objective reading of the plea bargain was susceptible to but one interpretation, the defendant's purported misinterpretation of the agreement does not suffice as a reason to vacate his guilty pleas (see, People v. Welch, 129 A.D.2d 752; People v. Latine, 71 A.D.2d 697). Based on this record, the defendant's guilty pleas were entered knowingly and voluntarily (see, People v. Harris, 61 N.Y.2d 9). Mollen, P.J., Bracken, Rubin, Sullivan and Rosenblatt, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

People v. Santana

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Jun 5, 1989
151 A.D.2d 518 (N.Y. App. Div. 1989)
Case details for

People v. Santana

Case Details

Full title:THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. RAMON SANTANA…

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

Date published: Jun 5, 1989

Citations

151 A.D.2d 518 (N.Y. App. Div. 1989)
542 N.Y.S.2d 307

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