DiPENTIMA, C.J.
The defendant, Blake Warner, appeals from the denial of his motion to withdraw his guilty pleas, made pursuant to Practice Book § 39-27(4),
The following facts and procedural history inform our resolution of this appeal. On October 16, 2014, the defendant pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine
Prior to sentencing, the defendant filed a motion to withdraw his guilty pleas and a motion to vacate the protective order. At the sentencing hearing, new counsel, Attorney Norman A. Pattis, appeared on behalf of the defendant and requested a continuance to hold an evidentiary hearing on the defendant's motion to withdraw his guilty pleas. Pattis set forth two grounds for the motion to withdraw. First, immediately prior to his pleas, the defendant had been informed by Riccio that the state had a witness who would testify that the defendant had made certain inculpatory statements to him. The defendant then decided to enter guilty pleas. After the court accepted the pleas, the defendant confronted the purported witness, who denied that he was prepared to testify against the defendant or that he had heard the defendant inculpate himself. As a basis for withdrawing his pleas, the defendant alleged that Riccio rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by relaying this information to the defendant without first conducting an independent investigation of this witness prior to the defendant's pleas.
Second, Pattis noted that the defendant's pro se motion to vacate also alleged ineffective assistance of counsel as to the imposition of the protective order. Specifically, Pattis claimed that the public defender assigned to the defendant at his arraignment on December 9, 2013, neither requested a hearing pursuant to State v. Fernando A., supra, 294 Conn. at 25-26, 981 A.2d 427, nor asked the defendant if he wanted one. Pattis further argued that the defendant had made it clear that he desired a hearing on the imposition of the protective order.
In response, the state requested that the court proceed with sentencing immediately. After Pattis acknowledged that he was not challenging the adequacy of the plea canvass, the court ruled: "I think that the issues that had been raised should be raised in a habeas corpus proceeding as opposed to an alternative proceeding. So I am going to deny the defense's request for a continuance." After the defendant exercised his right of allocution, the court sentenced him to the total agreed upon sentence of five years, execution suspended after two years to serve and three years of probation. The court entered permanent protective order prohibiting the defendant, inter alia, from assaulting the victim or entering her dwelling. This appeal followed.
In his appellate brief, the defendant claims that the court abused its discretion on two separate instances. "First, the court deprived the defendant of an evidentiary hearing ... in violation of State v. [Fernando A., supra, 294 Conn. at
Our standard of review for the trial court's decision on a motion to withdraw a guilty plea under Practice Book § 39-27 is abuse of discretion. See State v. Andrews, 253 Conn. 497, 505, 752 A.2d 49 (2000). Further, while generally our case law holds that a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in a criminal matter must be made through a writ of habeas corpus rather than by direct appeal, our rules of practice provide an exception. See Practice Book § 39-27(4); see also State v. Scales, 82 Conn.App. 126, 129, 842 A.2d 1158, cert. denied, 269 Conn. 902, 851 A.2d 305 (2004).
In order to prevail on this claim, the defendant "must satisfy two requirements.... First, he must prove that the assistance was not within the range of competence displayed by lawyers with ordinary training and skill in criminal law.... Second, there must exist such an interrelationship between the ineffective assistance of counsel and the guilty plea that it can be said that the plea was not voluntary and intelligent because of the ineffective assistance." (Internal quotation marks omitted.). State v. Nelson, 67 Conn.App. 168, 177, 786 A.2d 1171 (2001).
We are guided in our analysis of the defendant's claim here by this court's decision in State v. Salas, 92 Conn.App. 541, 885 A.2d 1258 (2005). In Salas, the defendant was charged with sexual assault in the second degree and risk of injury to a child. Id., at 542, 885 A.2d 1258. The defendant reached a plea agreement with the state, and the court canvassed him regarding his plea of nolo contendere. Id., at 543, 885 A.2d 1258. Following his plea, the defendant obtained new counsel and sought to withdraw his plea. Id. Specifically, his counsel obtained a transcript of the plea canvass and filed motions to withdraw the plea and for an evidentiary hearing. Id. The court denied the motions filed on behalf of the defendant. Id.
On appeal, the defendant in Salas argued that the court improperly denied his motion for an evidentiary hearing. Id., at 544, 885 A.2d 1258. Specifically, he claimed that "because he offered allegations of specific, demonstrative incidents of his attorney's ineffectiveness ... the court abused its discretion in denying his motion for an evidentiary hearing." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id. At the out-set of our analysis, we recited the following: "After a guilty plea is accepted but before the imposition of sentence the court is obligated to permit withdrawal upon proof of one of the grounds in [Practice Book § 39-27]. An evidentiary hearing is not required if the record of the plea proceeding and other information in the court
"In considering whether to hold an evidentiary hearing on a motion to withdraw a guilty plea the court may disregard any allegations of fact, whether contained in the motion or made in an offer of proof, which are either conclusory, vague or oblique. For the purposes of determining whether to hold an evidentiary hearing, the court should ordinarily assume any specific allegation of fact to be true. If such allegations furnish a basis for withdrawal of the plea under [§ 39-27] and are not conclusively refuted by the record of the plea proceedings and other information contained in the court file, then an evidentiary hearing is required." (Emphasis in original; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id. We further noted that the burden was on the defendant to show a plausible reason for the withdrawal. Id., at 545, 885 A.2d 1258.
After reviewing the transcript from the plea canvass and the affidavits submitted on behalf of the defendant in Salas, we concluded that the trial court erred by not conducting an evidentiary hearing. Id., at 550, 885 A.2d 1258. "The record of the plea proceeding does not conclusively refute the allegations of fact in the defendant's motion and accompanying affidavits.... Therefore, an evidentiary hearing was required." (Citations omitted.) Id., at 550-51, 885 A.2d 1258. Accordingly, we reversed the judgment and remanded the case for an evidentiary hearing. Id., at 551, 885 A.2d 1258.
Similarly, in the present case, the defendant alleged that because of Riccio's failure to investigate the purported state's witness, his subsequent plea was unknowing and involuntary. There was nothing to conclusively refute this allegation of fact before the trial court. We are in accord with both the state and the defendant in concluding that the court should have provided the defendant with an opportunity to develop that claim fully. We conclude, therefore, that the judgment must be reversed and the case remanded for an evidentiary hearing.
As for the second ground for withdrawing his plea, the defendant asserts that the court should have permitted an evidentiary hearing for his claim that his assigned public defender was ineffective in not requesting a hearing pursuant to State v. Fernando A., supra, 294 Conn. at 7-8, 981 A.2d 427. We are not persuaded. The defendant was obligated to obey the protective order, regardless of whether it was issued improperly. His claim, predicated on his constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel, amounts to a collateral attack on the protective order. He is barred from challenging its propriety as a result of the collateral bar rule.
In State v. Wright, supra, 273 Conn. at 424-31, 870 A.2d 1039, our Supreme Court rejected the claim that the invalidity of a protective order constitutes a cognizable defense to violating that protective order under our law. In reaching this conclusion, it relied on its analysis in Cologne v. Westfarms Associates, 197 Conn. 141, 496 A.2d 476 (1985), that a party must obey a court order and a contempt hearing "does not open to reconsideration the legal or factual basis of the order alleged to have been disobeyed...." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Wright, supra, at 425, 870 A.2d 1039. It noted that this doctrine, known as the collateral bar rule, applied both in cases of civil contempt
The court in Wright also rejected the defendant's contention that he was denied the constitutional right to an attorney when he appeared at the protective order hearing without counsel. Id., at 432-33, 870 A.2d 1039. Specifically, he argued that "the presence of an attorney at that hearing would have prevented the court from issuing the invalid order in the first place." Id., at 433, 870 A.2d 1039. Our Supreme Court responded: "We nonetheless conclude that the defendant's right to counsel claim simply amounts to another impermissible collateral attack on the protective order that he was convicted of violating.... The fact that his claim is couched in constitutional principles does not render it exempt from the collateral bar rule. That doctrine applies not only when a defendant challenges an order on the basis of factual error but also when he contends that the order is invalid because its issuance does not comport with constitutional law." (Citation omitted.) Id.
In the present case, the defendant's Fernando A. claim is barred by the collateral bar rule as described in State v. Wright, supra, 273 Conn. at 425-27, 870 A.2d 1039. After being convicted of violating the protective order, he cannot now challenge the validity of that order, even on constitutional principles. We conclude, therefore, that the court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to withdraw the defendant's guilty plea on the basis of his Fernando A. claim.
The judgments are reversed and the case is remanded for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the defendant should be allowed to withdraw his guilty pleas on the basis of his claim that his counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to investigate the state's purported witness, and for further proceedings according to law.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.