Judge suppresses drug evidence from illegal search

A Columbia County judge has suppressed all physical evidence in a drug case because of an illegal police search.

Defendants, Emily Dziamba, Jessie Perell and Nathan Shook are charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Perell also is charged with second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Huntley hearings were held on Oct. 9 and Oct. 14. The prosecution called New York State Police Troopers Garrett Pough and Glen Cook, and Investigator Megin Miller.

The defense called no witnesses.

In a recently issued decision, Judge Brian Herman laid out the facts of the case:

On Nov. 16, 2024, Pough stopped a vehicle in the town of Claverack, Columbia County. Pough noticed what he believed was an expired inspection certificate on the windshield of the vehicle driven by Perell.

Pough knew Perell from an interaction they had about 10 days earlier when Perell had a suspended driver’s license.

Dziamba was sitting in the front passenger seat, and Shook was behind her in the rear passenger seat.

Although Pough was unaware of the status of Perell’s driver’s license at that time, he asked Perell why he was driving the vehicle.

Pough testified that he could not recall the response, but he told Perell to get out of the vehicle to interview him “simply wanted to interview him outside the vehicle.”

Pough did not testify about whether he determined the status of Perell’s driver’s license before telling him to get out of the vehicle.

Pough asked Perell if there was anything in the vehicle “that shouldn’t be,” which Pough called “a routine question.”

“I asked based off of the previous encounter I also had with him,” Pough said.

In the previous encounter, Perell’s vehicle was towed and the contents were inventoried because he had no license.

“So, in this case, since I knew his vehicle was going to be towed, I wanted to know what was in his vehicle … for inventory purposes,” Pough testified.

Pough said Perell told him there was an Adderall pill that belonged to a “buddy” in the center console.

Pough told Dziamba and Shook to also get out of the vehicle and Pough called for support from another trooper.

About 10 minutes later, Cook arrived at the scene, followed by a third trooper.

The troopers conducted a search of the vehicle without defendant Perell’s consent, “due to Perell identifying that there was an Adderall pill that was not his in the vehicle,” Pough testified.

After locating the Adderall pill, the troopers continued to search the vehicle and found a small amount of cocaine and heroin.

Pough claimed he had probable cause to search the entire vehicle “based on finding the Adderall pill.”

After searching the vehicle, the troopers found a blue silicone capsule, a bag of cannabis, and crack cocaine on the ground near the vehicle, where Dziamba and Shook had been standing.

Dziamba told Cook that she had a pipe in her bra and she was taken to the State Police barracks to be searched by Investigator Megin Miller.

Miller testified that before the physical search, Dziamba gave Miller a pipe, psylocibin mushrooms, and crack cocaine that were hidden in her underwear.

Columbia County Court Judge Brian J. Herman ruled that Pough’s stop of the vehicle was within constitutional limitations. And he ruled that Pough’s request that Perell get out of the vehicle was proper.

But the search of the vehicle was improper, Herman wrote.

“There is no basis … to conclude that, at any point prior to Trooper Pough’s inquiry as to the vehicle’s contents, he had anything more than reasonable suspicion that defendant Perell was driving without a license — far short of probable cause to effectuate an arrest justifying an inventory search,” he wrote.

“When Trooper Pough elected not to take steps to confirm or refute his suspicion that defendant Perell was driving illegally before directing him to exit the vehicle and inquiring as to its contents, he exceeded his limited authority,” Herman wrote.

“Insofar as Trooper Pough was without any suspicion, be it founded or reasonable, to inquire as to such conduct, the evidence obtained therefrom, in this case, the items recovered inside and outside the vehicle and from the person of defendant Dziamba, must be suppressed,” he wrote.

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