People v. Childers

54 Misc. 2d 752, 283 N.Y.S.2d 336, 1967 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1226
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 29, 1967
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 54 Misc. 2d 752 (People v. Childers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Childers, 54 Misc. 2d 752, 283 N.Y.S.2d 336, 1967 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1226 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1967).

Opinion

J. Irwin Shapiro, J.

After a conviction before another Justice of this court, this matter was returned by the Appellate Division for a new trial (28 A D 2d 725). Defendant now makes this motion for leave to reargue a motion to controvert a search warrant and to suppress evidence denied by me after a hearing held prior to the trial.

Three grounds are asserted as the predicate for this motion, namely: (1) that under section 2148 of the former Penal Law the execution of the search warrant on a Sunday was a void act and that, therefore, the seizure of articles under that warrant was unlawful; (2) that the search warrant was fatally defective in that it did not specify what part of a house which contained two families was to be searched pursuant thereto; and (3) the defendant has documentary proof that the complainant *' * * committed perjury * * * during the hearing on the original motion for suppression

[753]*753The last two claims on this motion are manifestly insufficient and may be disposed of summarily. The matters presented for disposition will, therefore, be considered in inverse order.

Defendant’s assertion that complainant committed perjury at the pretrial suppression hearing, absent a showing of fact in support thereof, is entirely insufficient to raise an issue. The burden of proof in controverting a search warrant or on a motion to suppress (with certain limited exceptions not here applicable) is on the defendant. (People v. Alfiniio, 16 N Y 2d 181, 186; People v. Malinsky, 15 N Y 2d 86, 91; People v. Mercado, 24 A D 2d 609.) There must be a factual demonstration that there is in truth an issue requiring resolution before a hearing is ordered. A mere conclusory and factually unsupported statement does not create an issue. (Cf. People v. Richetti, 302 N. Y. 290, 297; People v. Neeley, 4 A D 2d 1019; Hawk v. Olson, 326 U. S. 271, 277; Walker v. Johnston, 312 U. S. 275, 286.) The further assertion by defendant that he has documentary proof of such perjurious testimony, without setting forth such documentary proof, adds nothing to his bald, conclusory statement to create an issue requiring a hearing.

Of even less validity is the claim that the search warrant did not specify what part of the house was to be searched. This allegation is conclusively contradicted by the search warrant itself which expressly commands the police officer to make an immediate search, in the daytime or nighttime, of the “basement apartment of 111-29 208th Street, St. Albans, Queens, occupied by Alphonse B. Childers * “ ’5

The claim as to the “ service ” of the search warrant on a Sunday is one of first impression in this State and is somewhat troublesome. Before coming to grips with that problem a procedural contention by the District Attorney in opposition to this motion will be disposed of, in the process of which relevant background history is required to be set forth.

On December 3, 1965 defendant was convicted, by a verdict of a jury, of burglary in the third degree and grand larceny in the second degree. These charges grew out of a burglary committed in the apartment of defendant’s tenant in a house in which defendant occupied the basement. Prior to the return of the indictment, defendant made a motion to controvert the search warrant and to suppress incriminating evidence obtained pursuant thereto upon the ground that the affidavit of the police officer upon which the search warrant issued failed to show sufficient probable cause. After a hearing, that motion was denied and defendant was thereafter tried and convicted. Upon appeal from the judgment of conviction, the only contention made by defendant relative to the denial of the motion to con[754]*754trovert and suppress was the point that the receipt into evidence of the article seized under the search warrant constituted reversible error since it was obtained by the execution of a search warrant on a Sunday. In reversing the judgment of conviction, the Appellate Division did so upon a number of specified grounds, none of which related to the disposition of the pretrial suppression motion or to the claim then made for the first time relative to the execution of the search warrant on a Sunday.

In opposition to this motion, the District Attorney contends that defendant is precluded from making this motion because he did not raise the Sunday question .upon the original motion to suppress or at the trial and because this ground was asserted for the first time upon the appeal from the judgment of conviction. In this, the District Attorney is in error.

Although not so expressly stated, the basis of the District Attorney’s contention apparently is the thesis that the provision in section 813-d of the Code of Criminal Procedure that a motion to suppress must be made prior to the commencement of any trial precludes the instant motion. That provision, however, is not applicable here, for upon a reversal of a judgment of conviction and the ordering of a new trial, such trial proceeds “ in all respects as if no trial had been had.” (Code Crim. Pro., § 544; People v. Ercole, 4 N Y 2d 617, 620.) In such a situation, as I held in People v. Porter (37 Misc 2d 73, 76), a motion to suppress is maintainable as an original motion upon a ground which had not previously been urged on a prior motion.

Thus the principal question urged by the defendant must be determined on the merits.

Section 2148 of the former Penal Law (now General Business Law, § 11) reads: “All service of legal process, of any kind whatever, on the first day of the week is prohibited, except in cases of breach of the peace or apprehended breach of the peace or when sued out for the apprehension of a person charged with crime, or except where such service is specially authorized by statute. Service of any process upon said day except as herein permitted is absolutely void for any and every purpose whatsoever.” (Emphasis supplied.)

No New York case construing this statute has been found insofar as the seizure of evidence pursuant to a search warrant is concerned. The District Attorney argues that the case of Hessel v. Hessel (6 Misc 2d 861) determines that section 2148 of the former Penal Law “refers only to civil process.” (Emphasis supplied.) The adverb “ only,” used by the District Attorney in his brief does not appear in the opinion. The court used the phrase “refers to civil process” (p. 862) and not [755]*755only to civil process.” The HesSel case, therefore, does not hold that section 2148 does not refer to criminal process. In any event, this statement by the court, in support of which three cases dealing only with civil process are cited, is pure dictum if it was intended thereby impliedly to exclude criminal process.

Other jurisdictions have dealt with the proposition of a seizure under a search warrant on Sunday where there was a statute identical with or similar to the statute here under consideration and where there was no such statute at all. Those cases furnish a guide for decision here.

Under the common law the execution of a search warrant on Sunday was valid. (Wright v. Dressel, 140 Mass. 147, [1885];

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Bluebook (online)
54 Misc. 2d 752, 283 N.Y.S.2d 336, 1967 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1226, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-childers-nysupct-1967.