People v Tyrell (Cavell)

[*1] People v Tyrell (Cavell) 2010 NY Slip Op 52279(U) [30 Misc 3d 128(A)] Decided on December 30, 2010 Appellate Term, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.

Decided on December 30, 2010
APPELLATE TERM OF THE SUPREME COURT, FIRST DEPARTMENT
PRESENT: McKeon, P.J., Schoenfeld, Hunter, Jr., JJ
570842/09.

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

against

Cavell Craig Tyrell, Defendant-Appellant.

Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, New York County (Abraham Clott, J.), rendered September 6, 2009, convicting him, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of marijuana in the fifth degree, and imposing sentence.

Per Curiam.

Judgment of conviction (Abraham Clott, J.), rendered September 6, 2009, affirmed.

In light of defendant's express waiver during the plea colloquy of the right to be prosecuted upon an information (see People v Connor, 63 NY2d 11 [1984]), his present challenge to the facial sufficiency of the accusatory instrument must be gauged by the standards applicable to a complaint. The factual allegations that a police officer recovered a marijuana cigarette from defendant's hand in a public park; that the officer believed the substance was marijuana based upon his professional training as a police officer in the identification of drugs and his prior experience in drug arrests; the statement by defendant in the officer's presence, "it's only weed"; and the positive result of a field test confirming the substance to be marijuana were sufficient, for pleading purposes, to establish reasonable cause to believe that defendant was guilty of fifth-degree criminal possession of marijuana (see People v Kalin, 12 NY3d 225 [2009]). Therefore, we reject defendant's contention that the accusatory instrument was jurisdictionally defective.

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT. [*2]
Decision Date: December 30, 2010