People v Sokolowski
2014 NY Slip Op 00245 [113 AD3d 702]
January 15, 2014
Appellate Division, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, March 5, 2014


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Steven Sokolowski, Appellant.

[*1] Edward M. Gould, Islip, N.Y., for appellant.

Thomas J. Spota, District Attorney, Riverhead, N.Y. (Rosalind C. Gray of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Suffolk County (Braslow, J.), rendered August 3, 2011, convicting him of criminal facilitation in the second degree and hindering prosecution in the first degree, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law, the sentence is vacated, and the matter is remitted to the County Court, Suffolk County, for further proceedings consistent herewith.

The County Court imposed an enhanced sentence based on the fact that the defendant was arrested on unrelated charges after the plea proceeding. However, the transcript of the plea proceeding does not indicate that the defendant was told that, if he were to be arrested on another charge, the County Court might impose a sentence more severe than that to which he had agreed at the time of his plea of guilty. Therefore, an enhanced sentence should not have been imposed without affording the defendant an opportunity to withdraw his plea (see People v Newson, 81 AD3d 984, 985 [2011]; People v Muhammad, 47 AD3d 951 [2008]; People v Stewart, 32 AD3d 403 [2006]; People v Ruiz, 309 AD2d 883 [2003]; People v McKinney, 215 AD2d 407, 408 [1995]). Skelos, J.P., Dickerson, Lott and Austin, JJ., concur.