PEOPLE v. SASS (2008)

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York.

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Sidney SASS, Defendant-Appellant.

Decided: March 04, 2008

NARDELLI, J.P., WILLIAMS, SWEENY, CATTERSON, JJ.

Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Joanne Legano Ross of counsel), for appellant. Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Ignatius Anthony Mascarenhas, Jr. of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Lewis Bart Stone, J.), rendered June 30, 2006, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony drug offender, to a term of 6 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant's application to withdraw his guilty plea. Defendant's claim that he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the plea was contradicted by his allocution, in which he expressly disclaimed any such influence, and by the court's own recollection of defendant's demeanor and responses (see People v. Bess, 299 A.D.2d 263, 751 N.Y.S.2d 3 [2002], lv. denied 99 N.Y.2d 580, 755 N.Y.S.2d 716, 785 N.E.2d 738 [2003]; People v. Clarke, 251 A.D.2d 7, 673 N.Y.S.2d 648 [1998] ).

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