PEOPLE v. WHITE (2025)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (James M. Burke, J.), rendered July 23, 2019, convicting defendant, upon his guilty plea, of sex abuse in the first degree, and sentencing him to a jail term of one year, unanimously affirmed.

Under the totality of the circumstances (see People v. Conceicao, 26 N.Y.3d 375, 383, 23 N.Y.S.3d 124, 44 N.E.3d 199 [2015];  see also People v. Crowder, 24 N.Y.3d 1134, 1136–1137, 3 N.Y.S.3d 309, 26 N.E.3d 1164 [2015]), including the participation by counsel, the seriousness of the crime, the reasonableness of the plea offer, and defendant's experience in the criminal justice system, the plea was not the result of coercion.  Although the court rejected defendant's request for a one-day adjournment and required him to make a decision regarding the plea offer by the end of day, the circumstances of the plea were not coercive as defendant had sufficient time to consult with his attorneys and members of his family prior to entering the plea (see People v. Luckey, 149 A.D.3d 414, 415, 50 N.Y.S.3d 368 [1st Dept. 2017], lv denied 29 N.Y.3d 1082, 64 N.Y.S.3d 172, 86 N.E.3d 259 [2017]).

Defendant forfeited a challenge to the court's allegedly erroneous Molineux ruling by pleading guilty and waiving his right to appeal and is foreclosed from relying on the alleged error indirectly by asserting that it vitiated the voluntariness of his guilty plea (see People v. Hutter, 143 A.D.3d 574, 575, 41 N.Y.S.3d 211 [1st Dept. 2016], lv denied 28 N.Y.3d 1125, 51 N.Y.S.3d 21, 73 N.E.3d 361 [2016];  People v. Smith, 130 A.D.3d 411, 411, 12 N.Y.S.3d 96 [1st Dept. 2015], lv denied 26 N.Y.3d 1043, 22 N.Y.S.3d 172, 43 N.E.3d 382 [2015]).