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THE SUPPRESSION COURT PROPERLY FOUND THE POLICE OFFICERS’ TESTIMONY ABOUT THE REASON FOR THE TRAFFIC STOP CREDIBLE; TWO DISSENTERS DISAGREED (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, over a two-justice dissent, determined the suppression court properly deemed the police officers’ testimony about the reasons for the traffic stop credible. After a car chase and a foot chase, a weapon was seized from the vehicle and defendant was charged with criminal possession of a weapon second. The dissenters argued that the testimony of the police officers was not credible and therefore the People did not meet their burden to show the traffic stop was lawful:

… [W]e reject defendant’s … contention and the dissent’s assertion that the officers’ suppression hearing testimony should be discredited, and thus that the traffic stop should be deemed unlawful, because the officers failed to disclose that they… had a pretextual reason for stopping the vehicle based on information from a confidential informant conveyed to them by another officer in an earlier phone call. The officers acknowledged when the suppression hearing was reopened that they had failed to disclose in their reports or during their prior testimony that they had a pretextual reason for stopping the vehicle based on information from a confidential informant that a firearm may have been in the vehicle. Nonetheless, one of the officers offered a credible explanation for that initial nondisclosure and the other explained that, consistent with their prior testimony, the officers had not received a “call for service,” i.e., a citizen complaint via 911, prior to the traffic stop but, rather, had received a phone call from another officer. We conclude on this record that the officers’ testimony “was not so inherently incredible or improbable as to warrant disturbing the . . . court’s determination of credibility” after it was presented with the initial omissions and subsequent explanations … . People v Addison, 2021 NY Slip Op 06225, Fourth Dept 11-12-21

 

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