| People v Correa |
| 2010 NY Slip Op 07588 [77 AD3d 555] |
| October 26, 2010 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v ThomasCorrea, Appellant. |
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Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Laura A. Ward, J., at suppression hearing; JamesA. Yates, J., at plea and sentence), rendered December 4, 2008, convicting defendant of attemptedcriminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second violent felonyoffender, to a term of six years, unanimously affirmed.
The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. Police investigating a possible narcoticstransaction in an apartment building had an objective, credible reason to make a common-law inquiry ofdefendant. The officers were in the stairwell of a crime-ridden location when defendant descended thestairs, made eye contact with one of the officers, grabbed at a large bulge in his pocket, and turned towalk back up the stairs (see e.g. People v Flores, 226 AD2d 181 [1996], lv denied 88 NY2d 985[1996]). The record fails to support defendant's assertion that the police saw the bulge only after theyhad already made a level-two inquiry, or his characterization of the police action in following him up astairway as "pursuit." Instead, the police did no more than "follow defendant while attempting to engagehim," which is within the scope of a level-two inquiry (People v Moore, 6 NY3d 496, 500 [2006]). When defendant engagedin additional suspicious conduct regarding the bulge in the pocket, the officers were justified in takingself-protective measures by removing him from the stairwell into the hallway and patting down thebulge, which led to the discovery of a firearm. Concur—Tom, J.P., Saxe, Catterson, Renwickand DeGrasse, JJ.