The Appellate Division, First Department vacated defendant’s sentence and remanded for a Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA) eligibility hearing after the People conceded that conditioning her guilty plea on waiver of a Penal Law § 60.12 hearing was improper under People v. N.H.
The First Department modified a probation sentence, striking four conditions as not reasonably necessary under Penal Law § 65.10(1): a financial surcharge on an indigent defendant relying on public assistance, a dependent-support condition where the defendant had no dependents, an order-of-protection compliance condition with no supporting history, and a gang-paraphernalia ban with no evidence of any gang connection.
The Wyoming Supreme Court unanimously affirmed consecutive sentences for a former Casper police officer who pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated assault and battery following a prolonged armed standoff, holding that a plea agreement capping the State’s “sentencing argument” was a non-binding recommendation under W.R.Cr.P. 11(e)(1)(B)—not a stipulated sentence under 11(e)(1)(C)—and that Wyoming district courts need not make specific findings when deviating from a sentencing recommendation.