Fourth Department – Suppression: People v. Jacque-Crews

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New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department

Suppression

911 call – Fellow officer rule

People v. Jacque-Crews

KA 19-00316

Appealed from Supreme Court, Monroe County

Background: The defendant appealed from his conviction of criminal possession of a weapon. The charges arose from an incident in which the defendant displayed a handgun during an altercation. He left the scene in a Mercedes. He fled from the vehicle after it was stopped by the police a short time later, and a firearm was recovered from a backpack that police officers located on the path the defendant took when he ran. The defendant argues that the court erred in refusing to suppress the handgun.

Ruling: The Appellate Division affirmed. The court held that, while the defendant raised the issue of reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle in which he was riding, he did not challenge the reliability of the citizen who called 911 to report the incident, nor did he challenge the arresting officer’s reliance on the ensuing radio dispatch. Under the fellow officer rule, a police officer is entitled to act on the strength of a radio bulletin from a fellow officer or department and to assume its reliability.

Clea Weiss, of the public defender’s office, for the defendant-appellant; Martin P. McCarthy II, of the district attorney’s office, for the respondent.

Oral argument video