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1
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OPINION
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EXTRACTED KEY WORDS
BUS DEFENDANT PASSENGERS ENCOUNTER INVESTIGATOR YORK CITY COURT OFFICER APPELLATE DIVISION COUNTY COURT REQUEST NY2D TICKETS BOUR CREDIBLE REASON RAWLE MCINTOSH ACCORDING REASONABLE SUSPICION STATE CONSTITUTION OBSERVED DEFENDANT COMPANION RESPONDENT APPELLANT COMMERCIAL PASSENGER BUS WEARING CIVILIAN CLOTHING CRIMINAL POSSESSION AMENDMENT BLACK OBJECT THIRD TIME |
3 No. 81
The People &c.,
Respondent,
v.
Rawle McIntosh,
Appellant.
_________________________________________________________________
2001 NY Int. 88
June 28, 2001
This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication
in the New York Reports.
Shannon K. Geraty, for appellant.
Kimberly A. Mariani, for respondent. GRAFFEO, J.: This appeal requires
us to consider the admissibility of evidence seized as the result of
an encounter between defendant and the police on a commercial
passenger bus during a stopover in Albany, New York. Based on the
particular facts and circumstances of this case, we reverse the order
of the Appellate Division which upheld defendant's conviction.
According to findings of fact made by County Court, and undisturbed by
the Appellate Division, at approximately 3:30 A.M. on January 23,
1997, an investigator from the Albany County Sheriff's Department
boarded a bus which had arrived from New York City. The investigator,
wearing civilian clothing with his police badge prominently displayed
on his coat, was accompanied by two other officers. The investigator
announced that they were conducting a drug interdiction and "asked
everyone on board (approximately fifteen passengers) to produce bus
tickets and identification. He then proceeded to the back of the bus
to begin examining those items from each passenger." Walking to the
rear of the bus, the investigator observed defendant and a female
companion, sitting in the last row of seats, push a black object
between them. He approached the two individuals and asked for their
identification and bus tickets. The investigator then obtained consent
to search defendant's bag, which led to the discovery of a digital
scale, and asked defendant and his companion to stand, at which time
he saw a black jacket on defendant's seat. The officer found more than
two ounces of cocaine in the jacket pocket.
Defendant was indicted on one count of criminal possession of a
controlled substance in the second degree and one count of criminal
possession of a controlled substance in the third degree. County Court
denied defendant's motion to suppress the physical evidence seized by
the police. Subsequently, defendant pleaded guilty to both charges and
was sentenced as a second felony offender to concurrent prison
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