People v. Bell (Boubacar) ( 2023 )

People v Bell (2023 NY Slip Op 50977(U)) [*1]

People v Bell (Boubacar)

2023 NY Slip Op 50977(U)

Decided on September 18, 2023

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This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.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 September 18, 2023

SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT
PRESENT: Hagler, P.J., Brigantti, James, JJ.
570014/16

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

against

Boubacar Bell, Defendant-Appellant.

Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, New York County (Lisa A. Sokoloff, J.), rendered December 16, 2015, convicting him, upon his plea of guilty, of resisting arrest, and imposing sentence.

Per Curiam.

Judgment of conviction (Lisa A. Sokoloff, J.), rendered December 16, 2015, affirmed.

We find unavailing defendant's challenge to the second-degree assault charge that was, initially, the sole offense pleaded in the accusatory instrument. In view of defendant's waiver of prosecution by information, the accusatory instrument is assessed under the reasonable cause standard applicable to a misdemeanor complaint (see People v Dumay, 23 NY3d 518, 522 [2014]). So viewed, the instrument was jurisdictionally valid because the factual allegations establish reasonable cause to believe that defendant was guilty of second-degree assault (see Penal Law § 120.05[3]), and, in particular, satisfy the "physical injury" element of the offense. The instrument recited that defendant kicked a police officer in the stomach, causing the officer to fall back into a parked pedicab and experience "substantial pain in the stomach." Based on these allegations, "a jury could certainly infer that the victim felt substantial pain" (People v Henderson, 92 NY2d 677, 680 [1999]; see People v Mercado, 94 AD3d 502 [2012], lv denied 19 NY3d 999 [2012]; People v Lang, 81 AD3d 538 [2011], lv denied 16 NY3d 896 [2011]), a term which simply means "more than slight or trivial pain" (People v Chiddick, 8 NY3d 445, 447 [2007]; see Penal Law § 10.00[9]).

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.

I concur I concur I concur

Decision Date: September 18, 2023