An appeals panel vacated a defendant’s guilty plea to a sex abuse charge after finding a judge misstated what “forcible compulsion” means during the plea colloquy.

Forcible compulsion is a crucial element of the crime of first-degree sexual abuse to which defendant Izmehel Marrero pleaded guilty in February 2013 before Rensselaer County Court Judge Andrew Ceresia, the Appellate Division, Third Department, panel noted.