PEOPLE v. FERRER (2018)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Michael J. Obus, J.), rendered August 16, 2016, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, scheme to defraud in the first degree (two counts), grand larceny in the third degree (two counts), forgery in the second degree (13 counts), criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree (seven counts), identity theft in the first degree (11 counts), criminal possession of stolen property in the third degree (eight counts), attempted criminal possession of stolen property in the third degree, unlawful possession of personal identification information in the third degree (three counts, offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree (two counts) and criminal possession of forgery devices), and sentencing him to an aggregate term of 41/212 years, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant failed to establish good cause to substitute counsel at the sentencing proceeding. When defendant made an unfounded ethics complaint against counsel, “any conflict was of defendant's own making, and he was not entitled to circumvent the good cause requirement by creating an artificial conflict” (People v. Walton, 14 A.D.3d 419, 420, 788 N.Y.S.2d 107 [1st Dept. 2015], lv denied 5 N.Y.3d 795, 801 N.Y.S.2d 816, 835 N.E.2d 676 [2005] ). Furthermore, counsel was not obligated to argue in favor of his client's plea withdrawal motion, which was meritless except to the limited extent the court granted it (see People v. Washington, 25 N.Y.3d 1091, 1095, 13 N.Y.S.3d 343, 34 N.E.3d 853 [2015] ).

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.