DEFENSE COUNSEL WAS GIVEN NOTICE AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE HEARD BEFORE THE ISSUANCE OF THE WARRANT TO TAKE A DNA SAMPLE FROM THE DEFENDANT; DEFENSE COUNSEL WAS NOT ENTITLED TO DISCOVERY OF THE WARRANT APPLICATION PRIOR TO THE ISSUANCE OF THE WARRANT TO ASSESS PROBABLE CAUSE; A VIDEO DEPICTING DEFENDANT WAS PROPERLY AUTHENTICATED; APPELLATE DIVISION REVERSED (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge DiFiore, over a concurrence and a two-judge dissent, reversing the Appellate Division, determined defendant was not entitled to review the application for the warrant to collect DNA evidence from the defendant’s person before the warrant was issued. Defense counsel was given notice and an opportunity to be heard on the application and did not contest the reasonableness of the bodily intrusion at that time. The Appellate Division held (1) the defense was entitled to review the search warrant application before the warrant was issued (to assess probable cause) and (2) a video depicting the defendant was not properly authenticated. The Court of Appeals reversed on both issues:

The [Appellate Division] held that Supreme Court erred in precluding defense counsel from reviewing the search warrant application and in denying counsel the opportunity to be heard on the issue of probable cause. The Court rejected the People’s argument that Abe A. [56 NY2d 288] requires notice only for the first level of intrusion—seizure of the person—and held that the due process requirement of notice and an opportunity to be heard is likewise required for the subsequent search and seizure of corporeal evidence. The Court also held that the People failed to adequately authenticate the YouTube video … . * * *

It is evident that Abe A.’s requirement of notice and an opportunity to be heard in the pre-execution stage of a warrant authorizing the seizure of evidence by bodily intrusion was satisfied in this case. Defense counsel, having received notice of the hearing on the warrant, was given an opportunity to be heard on the application, other than on the issue of probable cause. Counsel failed to direct any argument to the nature of the intrusion, the value of comparative DNA analysis evidence or the sufficiency of the safeguards preventing unwarranted disclosure of the results of his DNA testing, either at the hearing or in his motion to suppress. …  [T]he method and procedures employed in taking the saliva undoubtedly respected relevant Fourth Amendment standards of reasonableness, and defendant’s claim that the failure to provide him discovery of the extant probable cause and an adversarial hearing nonetheless warrants the invocation of the exclusionary rule is without constitutional basis.

[With respect to the video,] …defendant did not dispute that he was the individual who appeared in the video reciting certain words [and] the video contains distinctive identifying characteristics … . … [T]estimony … provided evidence pertinent to the timing of the making of the video—including defendant’s admission of his future intent to make the video the next morning … —and the video was uploaded to YouTube close in time to the homicide. … [T]he video was introduced for its relevance to defendant’s motive related to territorial gang activity—which is not an element of the offense—rather than specifically offered for its truth. People v Goldman, 2020 NY Slip Op 05977, Ct App 10-22-20