IN ORDER FOR THE ARREST IN CORTLAND COUNTY ON A JEFFERSON COUNTY WARRANT TO BE VALID THE WARRANT MUST BE ENDORSED BY A JUDGE IN CORTLAND COUNTY BEFORE THE ARREST; HERE THE WARRANT WAS ENDORSED AFTER THE ARREST (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, reversing County Court, determined law enforcement in Cortland County did not have the authority to stop defendant’s vehicle and “detain” him on a Jefferson County arrest warrant which had not yet been endorsed by a town justice in Cortland County. To constitute a valid arrest, the warrant must have been endorsed in Cortland County before, not after, the arrest:

… [T]he statute provides that an arrest warrant issued by a city court, a town court, or a village court may be executed “[a]nywhere else in the state upon the written endorsement thereon of a local criminal court of the county in which the arrest is to be made” (CPL 120.70 [2] [b] …). As defendant correctly contends, inasmuch as “[t]he use of the future tense . . . indicates that the statute was intended to relate to [the] future act” of an arrest, the plain meaning of the statutory language indicates that the requisite endorsement must be obtained prior to execution of a subject arrest warrant in a non-issuing or non-adjoining county … . People v Burke, 2023 NY Slip Op 05083, Fourth Dept 10-6-23

Practice Point: When the counties are not contiguous, the arrest in one county on a warrant issued in another county will only be valid if the out-of-county warrant is first endorsed by a judge in the county where the arrest is made.