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Failure to Make a Motion to Suppress Constituted Ineffective Assistance

The Fourth Department determined defendant was denied his right to effective assistance of counsel because counsel failed to move to suppress drugs seized during a traffic stop and the motion was likely to succeed.  The police questioning defendant whether he had anything illegal on him was not prompted by a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity:

In a supporting deposition, a police officer stated that he stopped defendant’s vehicle after observing defective brake lights, in violation of Vehicle and Traffic Law § 375 (40). He observed that defendant was nervous, and defendant gave responses to questions concerning where he was coming from and where he was going that did not make sense considering the direction in which he was traveling. The officer ordered defendant out of the vehicle and asked him “if he had anything illegal on him,” and defendant responded that he had “coke” in his pocket. The officer then searched defendant’s pocket and retrieved what was later determined to be cocaine.

We conclude that defendant established that a motion to suppress would likely be successful, and that defense counsel had no strategic or other legitimate explanation for not moving to suppress the evidence … . The officer’s question whether defendant had anything illegal on him constituted a level two common-law inquiry, which required a founded suspicion that criminal activity was afoot … . Defendant’s nervousness and discrepancies in describing where he was coming from and going are not enough to give rise to a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot … . We further conclude that defendant’s contention survives his guilty plea inasmuch as defense counsel’s error infected the plea bargaining process … . People v Dealmeida, 2015 NY Slip Op 00169, 4th Dept 1-2-15

 

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