Summary
The Appellate Division, First Department, modified the judgment convicting Fabian Brown of assault in the second degree by striking the probation condition requiring payment of the mandatory surcharge and related fees. The court otherwise affirmed the judgment, upholding several probation conditions and declining to review certain constitutional and sentencing challenges.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether defendant's valid waiver of the right to appeal foreclosed review of his excessive-sentence claim.
- Whether the challenged probation conditions were reasonably related to defendant's rehabilitation or necessary to ensure that he would lead a law-abiding life.
- Whether the probation condition authorizing warrantless searches of defendant and specified property was properly imposed.
- Whether the firearms prohibition and surrender condition was properly imposed.
- Whether defendant's as-applied and facial constitutional challenges to a probation condition were reviewable despite the appeal waiver and lack of preservation.
- Whether the mandatory surcharge and other fees were reasonably related to rehabilitation or necessary to ensure a law-abiding life.
Holdings
- Defendant validly waived his right to appeal, and that waiver foreclosed review of his excessive-sentence claim.
- Challenges to probation conditions as not reasonably related to rehabilitation survive a valid appeal waiver and do not require preservation.
- Condition 7 was properly imposed because it was reasonably necessary to ensure that defendant would lead a law-abiding life or to assist him in doing so.
- The condition requiring defendant to consent to warrantless searches of his person, vehicle, and home for drugs, drug paraphernalia, firearms, weapons, or contraband was properly imposed.
- The firearms prohibition and surrender condition was properly imposed because defendant was ineligible to possess or purchase a firearm under federal and state law.
- The valid appeal waiver foreclosed review of defendant's as-applied constitutional challenge under the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Any facial challenge was unpreserved, and the court declined to review either challenge in the interest of justice.
- Condition 10 was improper and was stricken because payment of the mandatory surcharge and other fees was not reasonably related to defendant's rehabilitation or necessary to ensure that he would lead a law-abiding life.
Key quotations
“"[a]void injurious or vicious habits; refrain from frequenting unlawful or disreputable places; and . . . not consort with disreputable people"” (*1)
“"will lead a law-abiding life or to assist him to do so"” (*1)
Factual background
Defendant pleaded guilty to assault in the second degree after being armed with a knife that he used to stab the victim. He admitted to daily marijuana use since age fourteen. The sentencing court imposed three years of probation, including conditions concerning disreputable conduct, warrantless searches, firearms, and payment of a mandatory surcharge and fees.
Procedural history
The Supreme Court, Bronx County, rendered judgment on May 9, 2024, after defendant pleaded guilty to assault in the second degree and imposed three years of probation. Defendant appealed, challenging his sentence and several probation conditions. The Appellate Division held that the appeal waiver foreclosed review of the excessive-sentence claim and certain constitutional claims, upheld most probation conditions, and struck the surcharge-and-fees condition.