People v Juan Heffelfinger

People v Heffelfinger 2004 NY Slip Op 09666 [13 AD3d 648] December 27, 2004 Appellate Division, Second Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, February 23, 2005

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Juan Heffelfinger, Appellant.

—[*1]Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Westchester County (DiFiore, J.), rendered December 16, 2002, convicting him of robbery in the second degree, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence. Assigned counsel has submitted a brief in accordance with Anders v California (386 US 738 [1967]) in which he moves to be relieved of the assignment to prosecute this appeal.

Ordered that the motion is granted, and John Raymond Mechmann, Jr., is relieved as the attorney for the defendant and is directed to turn over all papers in his possession to new counsel assigned herein; and it is further,

Ordered that Marianne Karas, Esq., Box 277, Armonk, N.Y. 10504 is assigned as counsel to perfect the appeal; and it is further,

Ordered that the People are directed to furnish a copy of the stenographic minutes to the new assigned counsel; and it is further,

Ordered that new counsel shall serve and file a brief on behalf of the defendant within 90 days of the date of this decision and order and the People shall serve and file their brief within 120 days of the date of this decision and order; by prior decision and order on motion of this Court, the defendant was granted leave to prosecute the appeal on the original papers (including the [*2]typewritten stenographic minutes) and on the typewritten briefs of the parties, who were directed to file nine copies of their respective briefs and to serve one copy on each other.

Upon this Court's independent review of the record, we conclude that potentially nonfrivolous issues exist with respect to, inter alia, the denial of the defendant's motion to withdraw his guilty plea. Accordingly, assignment of new counsel is warranted (see People v Stokes, 95 NY2d 633 [2001]; People v Casiano, 67 NY2d 906 [1986]; People v Gonzalez, 47 NY2d 606 [1979]). Florio, J.P., Goldstein, Adams, Rivera and Spolzino, JJ., concur.