People v. Terry, 13877, 1941/11.

• Decision Date: 06 January 2015
• Docket Number: 13877, 1941/11.
• Citation: 999 N.Y.S.2d 419,124 A.D.3d 409,2015 N.Y. Slip Op. 00210
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Jariel TERRY, Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

124 A.D.3d 409
999 N.Y.S.2d 419
2015 N.Y. Slip Op. 00210

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent
v.
Jariel TERRY, Defendant–Appellant.

13877, 1941/11.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York.

Jan. 6, 2015.

999 N.Y.S.2d 420

Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (William B. Carney of counsel), for appellant.

Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Zachary Stendig of counsel), for respondent.

MAZZARELLI, J.P., DeGRASSE, MANZANET–DANIELS, FEINMAN, GISCHE, JJ.

Opinion

124 A.D.3d 409

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Analisa Torres, J. at suppression hearing; Renee A. White, J. at plea and sentencing), rendered May 29, 2012, convicting defendant of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony drug offender, to a term of 3 ½ years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. The undercover police officers heard a codefendant making a suspicious cell phone call suggestive of illegal activity and then saw defendant and the codefendant huddling together in a manner consistent with a possible drug transaction. When the two men looked at the nearby officers, who at this point were merely observing, defendant discarded a pill and the codefendant discarded a bag of marijuana. These circumstances gave the officers, at the very least, a founded suspicion of criminality and a common-law right to inquire. Contrary to defendant's contention, the fact that the officers approached him from opposite sides did not create a forcible detention. Within the bounds of a common-law inquiry, it was permissible for the officers, who did not draw their weapons, to approach defendant and position themselves in front and behind him, and ask him if he had

124 A.D.3d 410

narcotics in his possession (...