Annotated Queens County Felony Plea Policy

English translation of the legal language to help you understand what it all means.

All defendants who wish to plead guilty to felony charges post indictment will be required to plead guilty to the top count of the indictment pending against them. The Queens County District Attorney's Office does not engage in post-indictment plea bargaining.

[Quick English translation - "If you are EVER going to want to plea bargain, do it up front or NOT AT ALL." One might think that the difference between waiting to negotiate is not important, but what this statement DOES NOT TELL YOU, is that once you are indicted for a felony, there are often mandatory minimum prison sentences associated with the crimes for which you have been indicted. If the Queens District Attorney’s Office indicts you for such an offense, then you need their permission to work out a plea to something that would get you less than the mandatory minimum. Their policy says that if you force them to get an indictment you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET THEIR PERMISSION to plea to anything less than whatever the mandatory minimum is. Although the Queens District Attorney’s Office does actually occasionally deviate from this policy, it is only in the rarest of cases, and it is certainly not something which ought to be counted on.]

Defendants wishing to engage in pre-indictment dispositional conferencing [known in English as plea bargaining] are required at the time of their arraignment in Criminal Court to waive any and all constitutional rights to speedy trial as well as all statutory rights under Sections30.30, 180.80 and 190.80 of the Criminal Procedure Law for a period of thirty (30) days.

[English Translation - Not only does the Queens District Attorney’s Office require that felony plea bargaining be accomplished before indictment, they also require that the decision to consider plea bargaining be made at the first appearance in court (often within 24 hours of arrest). Refusal to waive (at the arraignment) the legal requirements with respect to how soon the Queens District Attorney’s Office must present cases to the Grand Jury is taken as a nearly irrevocable refusal to engage in plea bargaining. One important impact of this policy is that in a multi-defendant situation, ALL defendants must waive these rights and agree to plea bargain or the Queens District Attorney’s Office treats it as if NOBODY has waived or agreed to plea bargain. A typical difficulty is the first arrest defendant who is arrested with a career criminal who refuses to waive because he knows his offer will be extremely high. The first arrest defendant who might be able to otherwise negotiate a favorable plea will now not be permitted by the Queens District Attorney’s Office to obtain the benefit of the plea that they will acknowledge would have satisfied them. Co-defendants who do not agree on how best to proceed often drive cases that ought to be plead out to trial.]

Quick Translation of Queens County Plea Policy

People arrested in Queens County for felonies are presented, through their attorneys a notice of the Queens County "Plea Policy". This policy statement is filled with legal language requiring an experienced criminal lawyer to translate.

Call 718-268-2171 for more information or to schedule your free consultation with a New York criminal defense lawyer from Shalley & Murray.

Shalley & Murray (NYC Office)
118-35 Queens Blvd., Suite 1220
Forest Hills, NY 11375