NY appeals court overturns drug conviction over illegal search

A state appeals court has reversed a drug conviction because of an illegal police search.

Defendant Joseph Ruise pleaded guilty in January 2022 before Genesee County Court Judge Michael M. Mohun, to third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Fourth Department, unanimously reversed the conviction, vacated the plea, granted a defense motion to suppress physical evidence, and dismissed the indictment.

“We note that defendant’s challenge to the court’s suppression ruling is properly before us inasmuch as the suppression ruling was expressly excluded from the scope of defendant’s waiver of the right to appeal,” the Fourth Department wrote.

“The record from the suppression hearing, including the body-worn camera footage, establishes that police officers entered an apartment with the tenant’s permission in order to search for a person who was the subject of an active arrest warrant,” the court wrote.

“At the time, defendant was sitting at the kitchen table, apparently asleep or unconscious. The tenant told the officers that defendant had the same first name as the subject of the arrest warrant but was not the person they were looking for,” the court wrote.

“The body-worn camera footage showed that an officer attempted unsuccessfully to wake defendant and thereafter proceeded to search defendant’s pockets for his identification,” the court wrote.

“The officer found a cigarette box in defendant’s pocket. When he looked into the box, the officer saw that it contained crack cocaine. The officers called an ambulance for defendant, but when the ambulance arrived, the medical personnel were able to wake defendant and determined that he did not need medical care,” according to the decision.

“During his testimony at the suppression hearing, the officer asserted that Mental Hygiene Law Section 22.09 permitted him to search defendant inasmuch as he was planning to call an ambulance to transport defendant,” the panel wrote.

“The suppression court determined that the officer’s search of defendant’s person was justified by Mental Hygiene Law Section 22.09 and that the search was analogous to a search incident to arrest,” according to the decision.

The Fourth Department agreed with the defense argument that the court erred in concluding that the warrantless search of Ruise was justified.

“The People correctly concede that the officer did not believe that defendant had committed a crime before he searched defendant’s pockets, and thus the search was not conducted incident to a lawful arrest,” the court wrote.

“We cannot conclude that the police officer was acting pursuant to Mental Hygiene Law Section 22.09 because, contrary to the People’s assertion, there was insufficient evidence that defendant was in danger of harming himself or others,” the court ruled.

“We therefore conclude that the court erred in refusing to suppress the physical evidence obtained as a result of the illegal search of defendant’s person,” they found.

“Because our conclusion results in the suppression of all evidence in support of the crimes charged, the indictment must be dismissed,” the panel ruled.

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