Opinion
No. 16342 Ind No. 2373/08 Case No. 2016-322
10-06-2022
The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Hector Santiago, Defendant-Appellant.
Twyla Carter, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Svetlana M. Kornfeind of counsel), for appellant. Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Amanda Katherine Regan of counsel), for respondent.
Twyla Carter, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Svetlana M. Kornfeind of counsel), for appellant.
Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Amanda Katherine Regan of counsel), for respondent.
Before: Manzanet-Daniels, J.P., Mazzarelli, Moulton, Kennedy, Pitt, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Gregory Carro, J.), rendered July 23, 2015, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him to a conditional discharge, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant made a valid waiver of his right to appeal (see generally People v Lopez, 6 N.Y.3d 248, 256 [2006]), thereby foreclosing review of his suppression claim. The plea court separately explained the right to appeal and did not conflate it with the other rights waived (see People v Sanders, 25 N.Y.3d 337, 341 [2015]). It also explained that this right would "[n]ormally" apply but that a waiver would be "part of this plea," that is, a condition of this particular disposition, if defendant accepted it. The appeal right and waiver were also described accurately and in detail in the written waiver form. Defendant had an opportunity to discuss the form with his attorney, and defendant confirmed that he read and understood the form (see People v Thomas, 34 N.Y.3d 545, 560 [2019], cert denied 589 U.S. _, 140 S.Ct. 2634 [2020]). "To the extent the court's oral colloquy could be viewed as suggesting that defendant was waiving all appellate rights, any ambiguity was resolved by the written waiver" (People v Ruperto, 200 A.D.3d 566, 567 [1st Dept 2021], lv denied 38 N.Y.3d 953 [2022]).