Police Did Not Have Founded Suspicion of Criminal Activity When Path of Parked Car Was Blocked by Police Vehicle/Suppression of Seized Drugs Should Have Been Granted

The Second Department determined defendant’s suppression motion should have been granted.  After seeing a man approach the window of a parked car, but without seeing what was exchanged, the police blocked the parked car with the police vehicle, approached and ultimately arrested defendant.  The Second Department determined blocking the path of the parked car was a “stop” and the police did not have a “founded suspicion” of criminal activity at that point:

Although the detective who stopped the defendant’s car was trained in identifying narcotics transactions and was aware of numerous drug transactions in the neighborhood, including some involving car deliveries of drugs, he did not see what the defendant and the pedestrian exchanged, could not see if one of the men gave the other something in return for something else, and did not see money pass between the two men …. Moreover, the detective saw only one exchange … , did not describe any furtive conduct on the part of the two men …, or, indeed, any other conduct that would give rise to a reasonable suspicion that he was observing a drug transaction …. The detective’s observations supported only a “founded suspicion that criminal activity [was] afoot” …, which is insufficient to justify the stop of the defendant’s car … . Consequently, that branch of the defendant’s omnibus motion which was to suppress the crack cocaine must be granted. People v Loper 2014 NY Slip Opinion 01771, 2nd Dept 3-19-14