Opinion
May 18, 1992
Appeal from the County Court, Westchester County (Cowhey, J.).
Ordered that the judgments are affirmed.
"The decision of whether to permit a defendant to withdraw a previously entered guilty plea rests within the sound discretion of the sentencing court" (People v. Howard, 138 A.D.2d 525). The court did not improvidently exercise its discretion in denying the defendant's motion to withdraw his guilty plea. The record reveals that the defendant knowingly and voluntarily pleaded guilty in the presence of competent counsel after the court had advised him of the consequences of his plea. The defendant's protestations at sentencing that he was coerced into pleading guilty and did not understand the proceedings, are refuted by the record of the plea proceedings in which he expressly stated, while under oath, that he was not being coerced into pleading guilty, that he was pleading guilty freely and voluntarily, and that he was satisfied with the representation being given by his counsel (see, People v. Brownlee, 158 A.D.2d 610). Thus, the defendant's protestations at sentencing did not provide a basis for withdrawing his pleas (see People v Santana, 176 A.D.2d 360; People v. Latimer, 176 A.D.2d 350). Thompson, J.P., Rosenblatt, Miller and O'Brien, JJ., concur.