The Fourth Department determined the forcible detention of defendant prior to finding heroin in plain view in a vehicle in which defendant was a passenger constituted an illegal arrest. The seized evidence, therefore, should have been suppressed and the indictment dismissed:
We … agree with defendant that he was unlawfully arrested without probable cause prior to the police finding packets of heroin in plain view in the vehicle. Although “[i]t is well established that not every forcible detention constitutes an arrest” … , we conclude that defendant was arrested when an officer, with his weapon drawn, opened the unlocked front seat passenger door of the vehicle, physically removed defendant, had him lie down on the ground, handcuffed and searched him, and placed him in a patrol vehicle … . “Under such circumstances, a reasonable [person] innocent of any crime, would have thought' that he [or she] was under arrest” … . Contrary to the People's contention and the court's determination, the officer's conduct ” went beyond merely ordering defendant from [the vehicle]. [He] took the additional “protective measures” of frisking defendant, handcuffing him and placing him in a police car . . . [S]uch an intrusion amounts to an arrest[,] which must be supported by probable cause' ” … . Inasmuch as the police lacked probable cause to arrest defendant before the officer returned to the vehicle and discovered the packets of heroin, the court should have suppressed that evidence, as well as the evidence subsequently found on defendant's person, as fruit of the poisonous tree … . People v Finch, 2016 NY Slip Op 02191, 4th Dept 3-25-16
CRIMINAL LAW (FORCIBLE DETENTION AMOUNTED TO ARREST WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE, GUILTY PLEA VACATED, INDICTMENT DISMISSED)/EVIDENCE (CRIMINAL LAW, FORCIBLE DETENTION AMOUNTED TO ARREST WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE, GUILTY PLEA VACATED, INDICTMENT DISMISSED)/SUPPRESSION (FORCIBLE DETENTION AMOUNTED TO ARREST WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE, GUILTY PLEA VACATED, INDICTMENT DISMISSED)/STREET STOPS (FORCIBLE DETENTION AMOUNTED TO ARREST WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE, GUILTY PLEA VACATED, INDICTMENT DISMISSED)