People v. Gleeson
| Citation | 36 N.Y.2d 462,330 N.E.2d 72,369 N.Y.S.2d 113 |
| Parties | , 330 N.E.2d 72 The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Daniel James GLEESON and Joanne Senuta, Appellants. |
| Decision Date | 05 May 1975 |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals |
Terrance James Hoffmann, Syracuse, for appellants.
Nathaniel B. Merrell, Dist. Atty., for respondent.
Defendants, following denial of a motion to suppress evidence, were convicted, after guilty pleas, of criminal possession of a weapon and of dangerous drugs. Defendant Gleeson was sentenced to four years' imprisonment on each charge. Defendant Senuta received a one-year sentence on each charge. Defendants appealed and the Appellate Division affirmed.
The issue is whether information obtained as a result of a trespass by the Sheriff may be used to justify a warrantless stop and search of an automobile and a seizure of incriminating evidence from the vehicle.
There should be a reversal. Information obtained as a result of a trespass by police may not be used to justify a warrantle stop and search of an automobile and a seizure of incriminating evidence from the vehicle.
During the summer of 1972, John Clarke and his family resided in a summer cabin in a remote, sparsely settled section of the Town of Greig, in Lewis County. Located on adjoining property, approximately 200 feet from the Clarke cabin, was a small cabin known to Clarke as the 'Gleeson camp'. The Gleeson cabin was believed by Clarke to be uninhabited.
On July 11, 1972, Clarke and a friend, Jack Dwyer, heard an automobile pull up in the Gleeson driveway. They then saw defendants walking to the side of the cabin. They did not go inside, but stood near the side of the building for three or four minutes, one bending or squatting down. Defendants then left in the automobile.
Their suspicions aroused because of camp burglaries in the area, Clarke and Dwyer decided to investigate. The two men went over to the Gleeson property and saw a portable ice chest or refrigerator in the crawl space underneath the cabin. The chest was removed and opened; inside was found a pistol, a box of ammunition, drug-use paraphernalia, a paper bag, and a military-type canvas bag. Without further examination, the men replaced the items in the chest and returned it to its position underneath the cabin.
Clarke and Dwyer reported the incident to Lewis County Deputy Sheriff Joseph Levesque, who, without a search warrant, went with the two men to the Gleeson cabin. Deputy Levesque opened the ice chest and made a cursory inspection of its contents. Later that evening, the deputy, still without a search warrant, retrieved the chest and took it to the Sheriff's office, where he and another deputy opened the chest and inventoried the contents. The deputies found a revolver, another pistol, a box of ammunition, drug-use paraphernalia, a paper bag containing five pounds of marijuana seeds, and a canvas bag containing additional drug paraphernalia. After the inventory, the chest and its contents, minus the ammunition, were put back underneath the Gleeson cabin. A 24-hour surveillance of the cabin was instituted by deputies stationed in a trailer on the Clarke property. In order to improve the line of vision between the trailer and the Gleeson cabin, some brush was cut on both sides of the informal boundary between the Gleeson and Clarke properties.
About a month later, on August 9, 1972, Deputy Cratsenberg, who was on duty in the trailer, observed defendants return to the cabin. They bent over at the side of the cabin, perhaps to retrieve the ice chest, and then went into the building. A few minutes later defendants came out of the cabin carrying the canvas bag and two metal canisters. They departed in a black Ford station wagon, traveling at a high rate of speed.
After reporting what he had seen, Deputy Cratsenberg followed and stopped defendants' automobile. The deputy asked the driver, defendant Gleeson, for his operator's license, which Gleeson produced. The passenger in the station wagon was defendant Senuta. Deputy Cratsenberg informed Gleeson that he was operating the vehicle with a broken tail light and was driving at a speed not reasonable and prudent; but no arrests were made, nor was a summons issued. Defendants were allowed to continue.
Deputy Cratsenberg returned to the Gleeson premises to check the ice chest, and, upon arriving at the cabin, somehow observed in the interior that the ice chest was empty. The deputy relayed this information by radio. Shortly, defendants were stopped on the road in their automobile and arrested for possession of a dangerous drug. The vehicle was searched and the police discovered and seized the two metal canisters containing marijuana seeds, the drug paraphernalia, and the two weapons. Just before the search, the police produced a warrant purportedly authorizing a search of defendants, their cabin and their automobile. The warrant, issued the previous day by a Town Justice, was subsequently held invalid by the court prior to the taki of testimony at the suppression hearing.
Defendants moved to suppress...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
People v. Adler
...a search by a private person, even an unlawful search, does not implicate Fourth Amendment considerations (People v. Gleeson, 36 N.Y.2d 462, 465, 369 N.Y.S.2d 113, 330 N.E.2d 72; People v. Horman, 22 N.Y.2d 378, 381-382, 292 N.Y.S.2d 874, 239 N.E.2d 625; Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465, 4......
-
Com. v. Russo
...decisions' emphasis on state trespass statutes is, if anything, contrary to Pennsylvania caselaw. Compare People v. Gleeson, 36 N.Y.2d 462, 369 N.Y.S.2d 113, 330 N.E.2d 72 (1975), cited in Scott, 583 N.Y.S.2d 920, 593 N.E.2d at 1336 (suppressing information obtained as a result of a "trespa......
-
People v. Gonzalez
...S.Ct. 679, 5 L.Ed.2d 734; Jones v. United States, 357 U.S. 493, 498, 78 S.Ct. 1253, 2 L.Ed.2d 1514; cf. People v. Gleenson, 36 N.Y.2d 462, 466, 369 N.Y.S.2d 113, 116, 330 N.E.2d 72, 74). Even if an individual has been lawfully arrested, the police are not thereby free to conduct a full-blow......
-
People v. Scott
...U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576]; People v. Gokey, 60 N.Y.2d 309, 312, 469 N.Y.S.2d 618, 457 N.E.2d 723; People v. Gleeson, 36 N.Y.2d 462, 369 N.Y.S.2d 113, 330 N.E.2d 72; see also, People v. Millan, 69 N.Y.2d 514, 519-522, n. 7, 516 N.Y.S.2d 168, 508 N.E.2d 903; People v. Stith, 69 ......