THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK RESPONDENT v. LUCAS LANGE DEFENDANT APPELLANT (2011)

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

It is hereby ORDERED that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed.

Memorandum:  Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him upon his plea of guilty of, inter alia, reckless endangerment in the first degree (Penal Law § 120.25).   By pleading guilty, defendant forfeited his challenge to the evidence of his guilt supporting the reckless endangerment charge, i.e., his guilty plea “signal[ed] defendant's ‘intention not to litigate the question of his guilt’ “ with respect to that charge (People v. Taylor, 65 N.Y.2d 1, 5;  see People v. Dewitt, 295 A.D.2d 937, 938, lv. denied 98 N.Y.2d 709, 767).   In any event, that challenge “rests on speculation as to what the evidence might have been had there been a trial” (People v. Washington, 262 A.D.2d 209, lv denied 93 N.Y.2d 1006).   The sentence is not unduly harsh or severe.

Frances E. Cafarell

Clerk of the Court