People v. Hafezi CA2/1

Filed 1/29/15 P. v. Hafezi CA2/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

THE PEOPLE, B249035 (Super. Ct. No. KA090841) Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

FARHAD FRED HAFEZI, Defendant and Appellant. __________________________________ In re B254083 FARHAD FRED HAFEZI (Super. Ct. No. KA090841) on Habeas Corpus.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Tia Fisher, Judge. Judgment affirmed. ORIGINAL PROCEEDING on petition for writ of habeas corpus. Tia Fisher, Judge. Writ denied. ______ Jeffrey Brodey for Defendant, Appellant and Petitioner. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, Steven D. Matthews and J. Michael Lehmann, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. ______

An amended information, as relevant, charged Farhad Fred Hafezi with five counts of oral copulation with a minor (Pen. Code, § 288a, subd. (b)(1) (counts 1, 3, 7, 8, 9))1, one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor (§ 261.5, subd. (c) (count 2)) and one count of meeting a minor for lewd purposes (§ 288.4, subd. (b) (count 6)). All counts related to Hafezi’s alleged conduct with a 17-year-old girl between August 1, 2009 and May 7, 2010. Hafezi, represented by private counsel, pleaded no contest to those charges. He then retained new private counsel and, before sentencing, filed a motion to withdraw his plea. After multiple hearing days with extensive testimony from various witnesses, which occurred over the course of about a year, the trial court denied the motion. The court suspended imposition of sentence and placed Hafezi on formal probation for three years, with 180 days in county jail as a condition of probation less credit for time served and good conduct. Hafezi obtained a certificate of probable cause and filed a notice of appeal contesting the denial of the motion to withdraw his plea. We find no error in the denial of the motion to withdraw Hafezi’s plea and thus affirm the judgment. Hafezi concurrently filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, which we deny. DISCUSSION Although in the trial court Hafezi raised numerous grounds for withdrawal of his plea, his appeal relies on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel based on his trial counsel’s (1) erroneous advice that the trial court’s indicated sentence would expire by the following Monday morning if he did not enter the plea on Friday afternoon after a long day in court; and (2) failure to advise Hafezi that if he went to trial a reasonable probability existed that he would obtain a more favorable result. These grounds do not establish ineffective assistance of counsel. As a result, Hafezi has not demonstrated a basis on appeal for withdrawal of his plea. “‘“[T]he right to counsel is the right to the effective assistance of counsel.”’ [Citation.] ‘The benchmark for judging any claim of ineffectiveness must be whether