Guilty plea of alleged Lewis County sex offender vacated because of judge's 'coercive' statements in court

Julie Abbass, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
·2 min read

Jan. 27—LOWVILLE — The judgement against a man who pleaded guilty to two counts of predatory sexual assault against a child in Lewis County Court has been reversed, the plea vacated, after the defendant's appeal was successful.

Terick R. Goodwin, then 46 and formerly of Deer River, pleaded guilty to the charges on June 4, 2019, before County Court Judge Daniel R. King. During his July 19 sentencing that year, Goodwin requested through his public defender, Leslie Lewis, that sentencing be delayed for 30 days so he could find a different lawyer to help him retract his guilty plea.

"I wasn't represented to the fullest, and it was against my best interest (to plead guilty)," Mr. Goodwin told Judge King at the time.

He also said that he only pleaded guilty because he was scared of the judge's statement that he would go to jail "for life" if he lost at trial.

During Goodwin's two court appearances before pleading guilty, according to a Dec. 23 decision issued by the Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department, Judge King went beyond "a description of the range of the potential sentences" with statements to Goodwin about what sentence would be imposed if he lost at trial.

The appellate court agreed with Goodwin's attorney Caitlyn M. Connelly's assertion that the statements constituted "impermissible coercion, rendering the plea involuntary and requiring its vacatur."

The decision recounts that when presented the plea offer of a likely 15 years to life sentence in state prison, Judge King told Goodwin that "my policy is if a defendant gets convicted at trial, that means that individual has not accepted responsibility for the conduct that they've been convicted of, and ... (i)n all likelihood the sentence (after trial) would not even be close to the 20 years (to life sought by the People), it would be much more, many more years, and you are looking at a potential (of) 100 years to life."

For each of the four counts originally charged, the maximum possible sentence was 25 years to life.

Judge King gave a virtually identical admonition during Goodwin's next court appearance, which led to Goodwin accepting the offer of 15 years to life in exchange for his guilty plea.

The appellate court referred to Judge King's statements as "coercive" and "all the more serious" because of the "misleading insinuation ... that consecutive sentencing would be mandatory after trial."

Goodwin's case was referred back to Lewis County Court and is likely to go to trial.

Jefferson County Court Judge David A. Renzi has been assigned the case, according to the Lewis County Court Clerk's office, and there have been some conferences but no date has been set for Goodwin's next day in court.