| People v Rivera |
| 2015 NY Slip Op 03457 [127 AD3d 622] |
| April 28, 2015 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Isaac Rivera, Appellant. |
Mischel & Horn, P.C., New York (Richard E. Mischel of counsel), forappellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Sheila L. Bautista of counsel), andPatterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, New York (Regina Y. Won of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Carol Berkman, J., at suppressionhearing; Laura A. Ward, J., at plea; Melissa C. Jackson, J., at sentencing), renderedFebruary 4, 2013, as amended March 4, 2013, convicting defendant of criminalpossession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a secondfelony drug offender, to a term of four years, unanimously affirmed.
The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. There is no basis fordisturbing the court's credibility determinations. The odor of marijuana providedprobable cause to arrest defendant and search his car (see People v Robinson, 103 AD3d 421, 421-422 [1st Dept2013], lv denied 20 NY3d 1103 [2013]). The search of the area under the car'scenter console came within the proper scope of a search pursuant to the automobileexception (see People v Langen, 60 NY2d 170, 180-182 [1983], cert denied465 US 1028 [1984]), and was particularly reasonable in light of the officer'sobservation that the console appeared to have been altered to create a hiding place fordrugs. Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Mazzarelli, Renwick and Gische, JJ.