People v Sealey
2020 NY Slip Op 05946 [187 AD3d 1067]
October 21, 2020
Appellate Division, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, December 2, 2020


[*1]
 The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Jaime Sealey, Appellant.

Yasmin Daley Duncan, Brooklyn, NY, for appellant.

William V. Grady, District Attorney, Poughkeepsie, NY (Anna K. Diehn of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Dutchess County (Peter M. Forman, J.), rendered November 14, 2017, convicting him of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree and bribing a witness, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant's purported waiver of his right to appeal was invalid because the County Court's oral colloquy mischaracterized the appellate rights waived as encompassing a bar to filing an appellate brief and the loss of attendant rights to counsel and poor person relief (see People v Thomas, 34 NY3d 545, 560-564 [2019]; People v Walder, 186 AD3d 1272 [2d Dept 2020]; People v Howard, 183 AD3d 640 [2020]). These defects were not cured by the terms of the written appeal waiver form which repeated many of the mischaracterizations contained in the court's oral colloquy (see People v Howard, 183 AD3d 640 [2020]). Thus, the purported waiver does not preclude appellate review of the defendant's excessive sentence claim (see id.; People v Fuller, 163 AD3d 715 [2018]).

However, the sentence imposed was not excessive (see People v Suitte, 90 AD2d 80 [1982]). Rivera, J.P., Maltese, Barros, Brathwaite Nelson and Iannacci, JJ., concur.