People v. Dukes
Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York; December 30, 1997; New York; State Appellate Court
The County Court's order to grant the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence was unanimously affirmed. The court found that the arresting officers lacked probable cause for the warrantless arrest. Approximately three weeks prior, the defendant had sold drugs to an undercover informant, but the police chose to delay the arrest and did not secure a warrant. Subsequent information from informants indicated the defendant had returned from Florida with drugs. The police observed the defendant driving a rental car with Florida plates and followed him to a parking lot, where he interacted with two women in a gray car, but no exchanges of items were seen. The police later stopped the defendant, who had not committed any traffic violations. During the search, a small amount of marijuana and crack cocaine were discovered. The court noted that the informants' reports did not provide evidence of the defendant possessing drugs at that moment, failing the Aguilar-Spinelli test's basis of knowledge requirement. The police observations, while corroborative, did not establish probable cause, as driving a rental car from Florida and the hand-to-hand contact were not inherently criminal. The conditions of the encounter did not suggest illicit activity, leading to the conclusion that the defendant’s actions were open to innocent interpretation. Thus, the police lacked probable cause for the stop, arrest, and search. The appeal to dismiss the indictment was affirmed by the judges listed.