Ratliff v. State

Appellant Kenneth B. Williams was sentenced to 33.15 months in Florida State Prison with credit for 229 days time served after pleading no contest to delivery of cocaine and battery on a law enforcement officer. He subsequently filed a motion to withdraw his plea and appoint special public defender for purposes of arguing the motion pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.170(l). The motion asserted ineffective assistance of trial counsel, an irreconcilable conflict of interest with counsel, and other grounds to be argued ore tenus. After a brief hearing where Williams was not present, the trial court summarily denied the motion based on its facial insufficiency, but did so without prejudice to Williams filing a pro se motion to withdraw plea, hire counsel to file an amended motion, or request the trial court appoint a special public defender to file such motion. Given the allegations, this was error. See Rivera v. State, 954 So. 2d 695 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007) (citation omitted); see also Mattia v. State, 907 So. 2d 683, 683 (Fla. 2d DCA 2005) ("A motion to withdraw plea filed pursuant to rule 3.170 is a critical stage of the proceedings in the trial court, and a defendant is entitled to be present at the hearing on his motion.") (citations omitted); Scippio v. State, 855 So. 2d 202, 203 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003) ("A defendant has the right to conflict-free counsel to argue his motion to withdraw plea.").