People v. Thomas

• Citation: 211 A.D.3d 1326,180 N.Y.S.3d 646
• Decision Date: 22 December 2022
• Docket Number: 110396, 112026
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Kevin L. THOMAS, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

211 A.D.3d 1326

180 N.Y.S.3d 646

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent,

v.Kevin L. THOMAS, Appellant.

110396, 112026

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

Calendar Date: October 20, 2022

Decided and Entered: December 22, 2022

John B. Casey, Cohoes, for appellant.

Weeden A. Wetmore, District Attorney, Elmira (Nathan M. Bloom of counsel), for respondent.

Before: Egan Jr., J.P., Lynch, Aarons, Pritzker and McShan, JJ.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Lynch, J. Appeals (1) from a judgment of the County Court of Chemung County (Christopher P. Baker, J.), rendered April 9, 2018, convicting defendant upon his plea of guilty of the crime of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and (2) by permission, from an order of said court, entered December 20, 2019, which denied defendant's motion pursuant to CPL 440.10 to vacate the judgment of conviction, without a hearing.

A police officer observed defendant roll through a stop sign, which led to a traffic stop lasting at least 40 minutes. A parole officer's search of defendant's vehicle during the stop turned up 2,400 packets of heroin, for which defendant was charged by indictment with two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree. Alleging the unlawfulness of both the prolonged traffic stop and the vehicle search, defendant moved to suppress all evidence and statements collected during the incident. A suppression hearing ensued, after which County Court denied defendant's suppression motion. Without waiving his right to appeal, defendant thereafter pleaded guilty to one count of the crime charged (see Penal Law § 220.16[12] ) in exchange for a prison term of nine years followed by three years of postrelease supervision. The court subsequently sentenced him in accord with the plea agreement. Defendant, self-represented, then moved pursuant to CPL 440.10 to vacate the judgment of conviction based on the People's purported failure to preserve video of the incident recorded on a patrol car dashboard camera (hereinafter dashcam). The court denied defendant's CPL 440.10 motion without a hearing. Defendant appeals from the judgment of conviction and, by permission, the denial of his CPL 440.10 motion.

On direct appeal, defendant contends that the police lacked justification for the prolonged traffic stop, and the parole officer acted as a conduit for police in conducting the vehicle search, rendering it unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment (see generally People v. Candelaria, 63 A.D.2d 85, 89–91, 406 N.Y.S.2d 783 [1st Dept. 1978] ). We are not persuaded.

At the suppression hearing, County Court heard testimony from Patrick Griffin and Edward Linehan, officers with the Elmira Police Department (hereinafter EPD), and James Pirozzolo, a senior parole officer. The court also received into evidence video from a body camera worn by Theron Brown, another officer with EPD, depicting the first 40 minutes of defendant's encounter with police. Such testimony and evidence revealed that, around 8:20 p.m. on September 2, 2016, Griffin was off duty and traveling on Interstate 81 through Pennsylvania toward the City of Elmira, Chemung County, when he observed defendant's distinctive vehicle, a silver Porsche Cayenne, traveling in the same direction. Aware of defendant's legal history and parole status, Griffin called Linehan, who was on duty that evening, to alert him "that this might be something for [him] to watch for" — that is, defendant was outside the geographical limit of his parole conditions and, if not approved by his parole officer, "there might be something going on."

Linehan, also familiar with defendant, waited in his patrol car near the off-ramp defendant would likely take to come into Elmira. When defendant exited the highway around 9:20 p.m., Linehan followed, eventually observing him fail to completely stop at a stop sign. On that basis, Linehan effected a traffic stop after defendant pulled into his nearby driveway and was already outside of his vehicle.

Linehan ran defendant's license and registration, which came back clean. In a subsequent discussion, defendant acknowledged that he had rolled through the intersection. Linehan questioned defendant about his curfew and his activity earlier that evening. Meanwhile, according to Linehan, Brown saw wrappers from restaurants inside defendant's vehicle, which Brown knew did not have locations near Elmira.

Defendant then gave inconsistent and dishonest answers to the police officers’ questions about his whereabouts and curfew requirement. Linehan testified that he then sought defendant's consent to search the vehicle. When defendant refused, Linehan warned that he would contact defendant's parole officer who, according to Linehan, would search the vehicle pursuant to defendant's parole conditions.

The body camera video indicates that 12 minutes into the encounter, defendant admitted that he had lied to officers because of his parole status and consented to Linehan "look[ing] through" his vehicle, but then revoked that consent almost immediately. At that point, Brown pat frisked defendant for weapons, finding none; defendant fully cooperated.

Linehan testified that he requested a canine unit, but none were available. Linehan conceded that only at that point did he contact Pirozzolo. In the meantime, 19 minutes into the encounter, while Linehan was in his patrol car, defendant called his attorney and spoke to him on speakerphone. The attorney advised defendant to ask for a citation and refuse consent to search the vehicle.

Testimony established that, around 9:40 p.m., Linehan got in contact with Pirozzolo, who supervised defendant's parole officer and was off duty. Linehan testified that he called Pirozzolo to "relay my concerns and relay the information that we had to see how the parole officer wanted to proceed." Linehan informed Pirozzolo of "all the particulars" at the traffic stop up to that point, as outlined above.

Pirozzolo testified that he did not approve a travel request from defendant, which, as a senior parole officer, would have been his responsibility. Because he also knew that defendant's curfew was no later than 9:00 p.m., Linehan's stop of defendant at 9:20 p.m. meant that defendant had also violated curfew. He decided to respond to the scene "for further investigation" based upon the information conveyed by Linehan and defendant's active parole status.

Meanwhile, Linehan and Brown assessed defendant to be agitated and acting "squirrelly." Based on that assessment, Linehan pat frisked defendant again, while defendant continued to cooperate. This time, however, Linehan removed the contents of his pockets — including his cell phone — and placed him unshackled into the back of a patrol car to wait for Pirozzolo. Among the items confiscated from defendant was a receipt from a New York City restaurant apparently printed that day, which Linehan provided to Pirozzolo when he arrived.

Pirozzolo testified that he decided to search defendant's vehicle only upon arriving at the scene, when defendant refused to answer where he had been and after seeing the restaurant receipt from defendant's pocket. With Linehan and Brown watching, Pirozzolo conducted a warrantless search of defendant's vehicle, observing more wrappers from nonlocal restaurants. Eventually, Pirozzolo found a closed shoebox on the floor behind the front passenger seat. Upon opening the box and removing tissue paper, he discovered the subject heroin. Pirozzolo ceased his search, and the vehicle was impounded, after which Linehan searched the vehicle again, removing the heroin and, among other things, what appeared to be receipts of large financial transactions.

Given this background, we turn to defendant's challenge to the traffic stop. There is no dispute that, at its inception, defendant's traffic stop was justified by his failure to heed a stop sign (see People v. Blandford, 190 A.D.3d 1033, 1035, 138 N.Y.S.3d 710 [3d Dept. 2021], affd 37 N.Y.3d 1062, 155 N.Y.S.3d 1, 176 N.E.3d 1043 [2021], cert denied ––– U.S. ––––, 142 S.Ct. 1382, 212 L.Ed.2d 333 [2022] ; People v. Blanche, 183 A.D.3d 1196, 1198, 124 N.Y.S.3d 738 [3d Dept. 2020], lv denied 35 N.Y.3d 1064, 129 N.Y.S.3d 384, 152 N.E.3d 1185 [2020] ). At issue is whether "the seizure [was] reasonably related in scope, including its length, to the circumstances which justified the detention in the first instance" ( People v. Blanche, 183 A.D.3d at 1198, 124 N.Y.S.3d 738 [internal quotation marks and citation omitted]). To extend a stop beyond its original purpose, circumstances must arise that "furnish the [officer] with a founded suspicion that criminal activity is afoot" ( People v. Banks, 148 A.D.3d 1359, 1360, 50 N.Y.S.3d 583 [3d Dept. 2017] [internal quotation marks and citation omitted]). In this regard, it is highly relevant that the officers were both aware of defendant's parolee status and the prospect that he had violated parole by leaving the county and staying out beyond his curfew (see People v. McMillan, 29 N.Y.3d 145, 148–149, 53 N.Y.S.3d 590, 75 N.E.3d 1151 [2017] ; People v. Huntley, 43 N.Y.2d 175, 181, 401 N.Y.S.2d 31, 371 N.E.2d 794 [1977] ).

Defendant's multiple and inconsistent explanations about his travels, which the police officers knew were false, coupled with his parole situation and his nervous demeanor throughout the encounter, combined to give the officers a founded suspicion of criminality (see People v. Banks, 148 A.D.3d at 1362, 50 N.Y.S.3d 583 ). As such, the police officers were authorized to extend the scope of the stop beyond its original justification by requesting consent to search defendant's vehicle and, upon denial, detaining defendant to await a canine sniff of the vehicle's exterior (see People v. Blandford, 190 A.D.3d at 1036, 138 N.Y.S.3d 710 ).

The difficulty that the police officers encountered is that they learned 25 to 30 minutes into the stop that the canine unit was unavailable. At...