TO: ALL NEWS MEDIA
FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT, DISTRICT ATTORNEY
DATE: APRIL 26, 2018
The Appellate Division, Third Department has unanimously upheld judgments of convictions in the following cases:
People v Troy Swartz
Defendant was convicted in July, 2015 of sexual abuse in the first degree and strangulation in the second degree following a jury trial in the Ulster County Court. The defendant’s charges stem from an incident which occurred on Henry Street in the City of Kingston on January 8, 2014, where defendant broke into the victim’s ground floor apartment, physically assaulted her, and then strangled her. After pinning her down on her sofa, the defendant sexually abused her. He then rifled through her belongings and after stealing cash and prescription drugs, fled the scene.
The defendant, a persistent felony offender, was sentenced by County Court Judge Donald A. Williams to concurrent indeterminate terms of 25 years to life.
On appeal, defendant maintained that County Court improperly sentenced him as a persistent felony offender and that the Judge was biased against him and should have recused himself. The Appellate Division, Third Department, however, after examining all of the appropriate criteria, including defendant’s four prior felony convictions, concluded that County Court had not abused its discretion by sentencing defendant as a persistent felony offender. In addition, the Third Department found defendant’s claim of judicial bias was both unpreserved for appellate review and, in any event, without merit.
On appeal, the defendant is represented by Michael K. Gould, Esq. of the Public Defender’s Office. Assistant District Attorney Joan Gudesblatt Lamb, Esq. handled the appeal for the District Attorney’s Office.
People v Kristopher Surdis
Defendant was convicted in September, 2016, after pleading guilty to falsely reporting an incident in the first degree, a class D violent felony, for calling in a bomb threat to a grocery store while he was incarcerated on another conviction for the same crime.
Defendant pled guilty to that charge pursuant to a plea agreement which included a waiver of appeal. He was sentenced by County Court Judge Donald A. Williams to a seven year prison term followed by five years of postrelease supervision to run concurrently with the prison term he was then serving. At that time, the Court also issued orders of protection.
Although defendant was sentenced consistent with the terms of the plea agreement, on appeal he argued that the five year period of postrelease supervision was unlawful. The Appellate Division, Third Department, however, disagreed. In addition, defendant maintained that the duration of the orders of protection exceeded the maximum permitted by law. The Third Department, however, determined that the orders of protection could expire in 2036, the date set by County Court.
On appeal, defendant is represented by John Ferrara, Esq. of Monticello, New York. Assistant District Attorney Carly Wolfrom, Esq. handled the appeal for the District Attorney’s Office.