The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Allen Proctor, Defendant–Appellant. (2017)

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Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Ronald A. Zweibel, J.), rendered April 27, 2012, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of assault in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of five years, unanimously affirmed.

The court providently exercised its discretion in denying defendant's motion to withdraw his plea.  “When a defendant moves to withdraw a guilty plea, the nature and extent of the fact-finding inquiry rest[s] largely in the discretion of the Judge to whom the motion is made and a hearing will be granted only in rare instances” (People v. Brown, 14 NY3d 113, 116 [2010] [internal quotation marks omitted] ).  Defendant received a full opportunity to present his challenges to the plea.

The plea record shows that defendant knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily pleaded guilty in exchange for a favorable sentence (see People v. Fiumefreddo, 82 N.Y.2d 536, 543 [1993] ).  The sentencing court had sufficient information to determine that defendant's claims of innocence and ineffective assistance were meritless and warranted neither a hearing nor the assignment of new counsel (see e.g. People v. Mangum, 12 AD3d 207 [2004], lv denied 4 NY3d 765 [2005] ).  In particular, defendant's central claim that he had a viable justification defense was undermined by his admission in his plea allocution that he committed an assault in the course of committing a felony.

We have considered and rejected defendant's remaining claims.

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CLERK