PEOPLE v. CRUCETA CASTILLO (2024)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Laurie Peterson, J.), rendered February 15, 2019, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree and resisting arrest, and sentencing him to five years of probation concurrent with a jail term of nine months, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant's challenge to his waiver of indictment is unpreserved and forfeited by his valid guilty plea (see People v. Abreu, 189 A.D.3d 419, 420, 136 N.Y.S.3d 19 [1st Dept. 2020], lv denied 36 N.Y.3d 1055, 141 N.Y.S.3d 745, 165 N.E.3d 671 [2021]), and we decline to review it in the interest of justice.  As an alternative holding, we reject it on the merits.  The record demonstrates that defendant validly waived his right to be prosecuted by indictment (see id. at 419–420, 136 N.Y.S.3d 19;  see also People v. Myers, 32 N.Y.3d 18, 21, 23, 84 N.Y.S.3d 406, 109 N.E.3d 555 [2018]), and that the Spanish language interpreter, who was present in court, translated the waiver of indictment for defendant (see Abreu, 189 A.D.3d at 420, 136 N.Y.S.3d 19).