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1
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OPINION
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EXTRACTED KEY WORDS
ARREST EVIDENCE COURT DEFENDANT INTRUSIONS DRUGS SUPPRESS INCIDENT WARRANT SUBSTANCE OFFICER BODY CAVITY REQUIRING REASONABLENESS SEIZURE AMENDMENT JUSTIFY BLOOD APPELLANT OPINION PENAL LAW COCAINE EXTRACT STRIP SEARCH UNITED STATES MOTION ABSENCE COUNTY COURT SCHMERBER |
3 No. 3
The People &c.,
Respondent,
v.
Eric More, a/k/a Brian Smith,
Appellant.
_________________________________________________________________
2002 NY Int. 20
February 19, 2002
This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication
in the New York Reports.
Sandra J. McCarthy, for appellant.
Bruce E. Knoll, for respondent.
_________________________________________________________________
LEVINE, J.:
Defendant was convicted of criminal possession of a controlled
substance in the third degree (Penal Law § 220.16(1)), criminal
possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree (Penal Law
§ 220.06(5)), resisting arrest (Penal Law § 205.30) and false
personation (Penal Law § 190.23). The drug possession counts
related to 2.37 grams of crack cocaine which the police extracted from
defendant's rectum during a strip search incident to his arrest. The
dispositive issue on this appeal is the validity of that seizure under
the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Prior to trial, defendant moved to suppress the drugs seized from his
person. At the suppression hearing, a detective in the Troy Police
Department Special Operations Unit testified that he and several other
officers entered an apartment after obtaining the tenant's permission
to do so. The tenant told the police that individuals in the apartment
were "cutting up cocaine" for sale and that one of the subjects was
wanted on an arrest warrant for assaulting a police officer. Upon
entering the apartment, the detective saw defendant sitting on a couch
with a woman on his lap. He also saw a "crack pipe and small piece of
white rocklike substance" on a nearby table. Based upon his training
and experience, the detective believed the substance was crack
cocaine. The police arrested defendant and the woman, ordered them
onto the floor, handcuffed them and conducted a "quick pat-down"
search for weapons. No weapons were found.
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