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PEOPLE DID NOT DEMONSTRATE THE WARRANT WHICH WAS THE BASIS FOR DEFENDANT’S ARREST WAS VALID, THE PAT-DOWN SEARCH WAS NOT JUSTIFIED AS A SAFETY MEASURE, SEIZED DRUGS SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUPPRESSED.

The Fourth Department, reversing County Court, determined the search of defendant’s person after traffic stop was not supported by proof of a valid warrant for defendant’s arrest. Defendant was a passenger in a car stopped by a sheriff’s deputy. The driver was arrested for driving without a license. The deputy then checked the defendant’s “data” and found defendant did not have a license and  there was a warrant for defendant. The defendant was then taken into custody on the warrant and cocaine was found in a pat-down search. The People did not demonstrate that the warrant was valid at the time of the arrest. County Court ruled the search was a valid “safety pat-down” before placing defendant in the police car:

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We agree with defendant that the court erred in upholding the search on the ground that it was a lawful “safety pat-down.” There was no evidence in the record of the hearing to support a conclusion that “defendant had a weapon or was a threat to [the deputy’s] safety” … . Moreover, “[a]lthough a police officer may reasonably pat down a person before he [or she] places [that person] in the back of a police vehicle, the legitimacy of that procedure depends on the legitimacy of placing [the person] in the police car in the first place” … . Here, the People failed to establish the legitimacy of placing defendant in the patrol vehicle. First, the People failed to establish “the existence of a validly-issued and outstanding warrant” … . Once defendant challenged the validity of the warrant by questioning the deputy concerning the status of the warrant and whether it was still valid, the People were “required to make a further evidentiary showing by producing the . . . warrant” (id.). The People did not do so. Thus, without establishing the existence of a valid and outstanding warrant, the People failed to establish the legitimacy of placing defendant in the patrol vehicle … . Although defendant, who did not have a valid driver’s license, could not have driven the stopped vehicle from the scene after the arrest of the driver, the deputy testified that, in the absence of a warrant, defendant could have called for someone to pick him up and therefore could have lawfully refused to be transported away from the scene in the patrol vehicle. People v Richards, 2017 NY Slip Op 04668, 4th Dept 6-9-17

CRIMINAL LAW (PEOPLE DID NOT DEMONSTRATE THE WARRANT WHICH WAS THE BASIS FOR DEFENDANT’S ARREST WAS VALID, THE PAT-DOWN SEARCH WAS NOT JUSTIFIED AS A SAFETY MEASURE, SEIZED DRUGS SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUPPRESSED)/EVIDENCE (CRIMINAL LAW, PAT-DOWN SEARCH, PEOPLE DID NOT DEMONSTRATE THE WARRANT WHICH WAS THE BASIS FOR DEFENDANT’S ARREST WAS VALID, THE PAT-DOWN SEARCH WAS NOT JUSTIFIED AS A SAFETY MEASURE, SEIZED DRUGS SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUPPRESSED)

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