PEOPLE v. TURNER (2026)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Brendan Lantry, J., at plea;  Maxwell T. Wiley, J., at sentencing), rendered June 5, 2024, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him to three years of probation, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant failed to preserve his contention that the court implicitly coerced him into pleading guilty by imposing an illegal discovery waiver during the plea colloquy (see People v. Lazaro, 245 A.D.3d 570, 570, 249 N.Y.S.3d 444 [1st Dept. 2026], lv denied 45 N.Y.3d 1017, 260 N.Y.S.3d 716, 283 N.E.3d 331 [2026] ), and we decline to reach it in the interest of justice.  Contrary to his contention, this was not a mode of proceedings error exempt from the preservation requirement (see People v. Conceicao, 26 N.Y.3d 375, 382, 23 N.Y.S.3d 124, 44 N.E.3d 199 [2015] ).  A mode of proceedings error “is reserved for the most fundamental flaws” (People v. Becoats, 17 N.Y.3d 643, 651, 934 N.Y.S.2d 737, 958 N.E.2d 865 [2011], cert denied 566 U.S. 964, 132 S.Ct. 1970, 182 L.Ed.2d 822 [2012] ), and the Court of Appeals has been “hesitant to expand the mode-of-proceedings-error doctrine” (People v. Mack, 27 N.Y.3d 534, 540, 36 N.Y.S.3d 68, 55 N.E.3d 1041 [2016] ).