| People v Becoate |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 01401 [59 AD3d 345] |
| February 26, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Johann Becoate, Appellant. |
—[*1] Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Sheryl Feldman of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Robert H. Straus, J.), rendered April 13,2007, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlledsubstance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony drug offender, to a term of5½ years, unanimously affirmed.
The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. It is undisputed that, based oninformation that defendant may have been selling drugs, the police had at least a foundedsuspicion of criminality that entitled them to make a common-law inquiry. The record supportsthe court's finding that the police did not exceed the proper scope of such an inquiry. It waspermissible for the officers, who did not draw their weapons, to approach defendant, follow himacross a street, position themselves with one officer in front of defendant and the other behindhim, direct him to stop, and ask him if he had anything on him; none of this conduct elevated theencounter to a seizure requiring reasonable suspicion (see e.g. People v Stevenson, 55 AD3d 486[2008]; People v Joseph, 38 AD3d403, 404 [2007], lv denied 9 NY3d 866 [2007]; People v Grunwald, 29 AD3d 33, 38-39 [2006], lv denied6 NY3d 848 [2006]). Defendant's admission that he possessed marijuana provided probablecause for his arrest.
In view of the foregoing, we find it unnecessary to decide whether the People's alternatetheory that the police had reasonable suspicion justifying a seizure is properly before this Court.Concur—Saxe, J.P., Catterson, McGuire, Moskowitz and Acosta, JJ.