People v. Davis

156 Misc. 2d 926, 595 N.Y.S.2d 287, 1993 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 73
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 25, 1993
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 156 Misc. 2d 926 (People v. Davis) 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. Davis, 156 Misc. 2d 926, 595 N.Y.S.2d 287, 1993 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 73 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1993).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Phylis Skloot Bamberger, J.

The defendant is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fourth degree and the fifth degree and criminally using drug paraphernalia in the second degree. Another IAS Judge granted a pretrial Mapp and Huntley/ Miranda hearing to determine whether property seized from the defendant and from a room that was searched as well as a statement made by the defendant should be suppressed. That hearing was held before this court on November 25, 1992. Detective Daniel Crane testified for the People. The defendant testified on her own behalf and called as a defense witness Thomas Blakeny. The motion is granted in part and denied in part. The narcotics found in the room of the social club and in the defendant’s purse and her statements are suppressed. The drug paraphernalia found in the room is not suppressed.

THE TESTIMONY

The Prosecution Witness

Detective Crane, a New York City police officer with Bronx Narcotics, was temporarily assigned to the Mayor’s Social Club Task Force set up after the Happy Land Social Club fire. He was part of a team to inspect social clubs. Crane believed it was the job of the Fire Department to examine every room, closet or separation during an inspection, but he was not trained in fire inspection. His role on the team was to protect the fire officials and to provide security in case there was a problem or if someone refused to cooperate with fire officials. On November 3, 1991, Crane was in uniform and part of a team that included another uniformed police officer, three or four plainclothes officers, a sergeant and one fireman.

At about 2:00 a.m.. Crane and the team were at 1771 [928]*928Southern Boulevard, a structure of several connected commercial buildings, which included a social club. The entry had a doorway and a blacked-out window. A steel gate was rolled up. The front door was locked and Crane knocked announcing it was the Police Department and they were present to do a fire inspection. They had no warrant. A man opened the door.

In the club, there were tables, a bar, a pool table, and a pinball machine. The lights were on and music was playing. In attendance were approximately 15 to 18 people who were drinking or playing pool or pinball. In the back of the club there were rest rooms and a hallway. On the left of the hallway was a door leading to a back room. A door at the rear of the hallway led to the outside.

The fireman checked the back door, the bathrooms, and behind the counter. The police officers walked around. Crane saw defendant and Gabriella Byrd come from the room off the hallway. Defendant locked the door to the room and put her set of keys, including her personal keys, on the counter of the bar. There was no suspicious conduct.

Crane did not recall speaking to the fireman or getting any instructions from him. He tried to open the door to the room and when he could not get in, Crane took the defendant’s keys from the bar, opened the door and entered the room. The fireman, said Crane, would have had to get into that room to see if there were "flammables” and another exit. Although not trained to do an inspection, Crane testified it was he who opened the door and entered the room to do the inspection. There was no testimony that the fireman ever entered the room, although another police officer might have done so. On a desk in the room, Crane saw two plastic bags containing cocaine, a strainer, a measuring spoon and a plastic envelope containing other plastic envelopes. Also on the desk was $895.

Defendant was arrested. She asked for her purse and Crane retrieved her purse from one of the shelves in the room. When he searched the bag prior to giving it to the defendant, he found seven envelopes of cocaine. Defendant was handcuffed and told Crane "she just worked there.” The statement was not made in response to questions.

Crane vouchered four keys that fit the lock to the club and returned the others to the defendant. He did not know if any citations for fire violations were issued.

The Defense Witnesses

The defendant testified on her own behalf. She said that the [929]*929social club was a membership club to which she had belonged and at which she had worked for several days in October 1991, the month before the inspection. She and the owner of the club, Thomas Blakeny, were friends and had seen one another when they were both on separate visits to North Carolina. While they were in North Carolina, Blakeny asked defendant to bring $3,000 back to New York to pay a contractor, named Walter, who was doing renovations at the club and to pay other expenses. She arrived at the club after the flight home from North Carolina. At that time, because the club was under reconstruction, it was closed to the public, and was dusty and messy. The ceiling was being lowered and sprinklers put in. Using the key to a back room given to her by Blakeny, she entered the room to count the money. She left the room after only counting part of the money and closed the door to the room, which automatically locked it. She put her keys on the bar. Afterward, the police and fireman entered the club. They looked around. Defendant showed the fire official that the back door leading to the outside was open. One of the police officers, without her permission, picked up the key, opened the door to the room, took her into the room and then handcuffed her. She was told she was arrested for possession of drugs.

The defendant testified she was not working at the club that night, that her purse was in the room and that she never made any statement that "she was in charge.”

Mr. Blakeny testified he had seen defendant, who was his friend, in North Carolina. He gave her the keys to the club and his home and about $2,500 to pay the contractor doing renovations on the club.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

1. The Defendant Has Standing to Challenge the Seizure of the Narcotics.

Before discussing the merits of the suppression question, it is necessary to determine whether the defendant has standing to challenge the legality of the seizure of the drugs from the back room of the club. Although there is no question that the defendant has a privacy interest in her purse that justifies her right to challenge the search of it, the basis for her standing to challenge the seizure of the drugs from the back room cannot be based on a privacy interest. Counsel at the hearing stated that she had no such interest.

[930]*930Nonetheless, defendant has standing to challenge the entry into the back room and the seizure of the drugs there. Her standing is premised on the use by the People of the statutory presumption of possession found in Penal Law § 220.25 (2).1 Principles of fairness allow the assumed possessor to challenge the seizure. (People v Millan, 69 NY2d 514 [1987].) The People relied on the presumption before the Grand Jury, and, although they equivocated at the hearing, never expressly disavowed the use of the presumption at trial. Although the defendant has standing to challenge the seizure of the drugs, the presumption does not apply to paraphernalia and therefore the People may use that evidence.

2. The People Failed to Prove the Seizure of the Drugs from the Room was Valid under the New York State Constitution.

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Related

People v. Abad
171 Misc. 2d 744 (New York Supreme Court, 1997)
People v. Collura
160 Misc. 2d 831 (Criminal Court of the City of New York, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
156 Misc. 2d 926, 595 N.Y.S.2d 287, 1993 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 73, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-davis-nysupct-1993.