People v. Mendoza

• Decision Date: 22 April 2008
• Docket Number: 3429.
• Citation: 50 A.D.3d 478,2008 NY Slip Op 03492,855 N.Y.S.2d 529
• Parties: THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. SILVA MENDOZA, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

50 A.D.3d 478

855 N.Y.S.2d 529

2008 NY Slip Op 03492

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. SILVA MENDOZA, Appellant.

3429.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, First Department.

Decided April 22, 2008.

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Troy K. Webber, J., on motion; David Stadtmauer, J., at plea and sentence), rendered June 9, 2006, convicting defendant of promoting prison contraband in the first degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 2 to 4 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied, without a hearing, defendant's motion to suppress contraband that correction officers discovered in his pocket during a search they conducted while defendant was an inmate at Rikers Island, since his factual allegations, even if accepted as true, would not have warranted a conclusion that the search was unreasonable (see CPL 710.60 [3]). While defendant's allegations may have stated a Fourth Amendment claim in the context of a search of a person at liberty, defendant did not address the diminished Fourth Amendment rights of a prison inmate (see Bell v Wolfish, 441 US 520, 557 [1979]). The facts alleged in defendant's moving papers did not set forth a basis for suppression, given the prison context (see Hudson v Palmer, 468 US 517, 529 [1984]; People v Frye, 144 AD2d 714 [1988], lv denied 73 NY2d 891 [1989]). We have considered and rejected defendant's remaining arguments.

Concur — Lippman, P.J., Saxe, Gonzalez and Nardelli, JJ.