People v. Adams

201 A.D.3d 809

157 N.Y.S.3d 385 (Mem)

The PEOPLE, etc., respondent,

v.Devon ADAMS, appellant.

2018–05182

Ind. No. 7074/16

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York.

Argued—October 15, 2021

January 19, 2022

Patricia Pazner, New York, NY (Denise A. Corsi of counsel), for appellant.

Eric Gonzalez, District Attorney, Brooklyn, NY (Leonard Joblove, Sholom J. Twersky, and Kamephis Perez of counsel), for respondent.

CHERYL E. CHAMBERS, J.P., ROBERT J. MILLER, LARA J. GENOVESI, DEBORAH A. DOWLING, JJ.

DECISION & ORDER

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (William M. Harrington, J.), rendered February 23, 2018, convicting him of attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence. The appeal brings up for review the denial, after a hearing, of that branch of the defendant's omnibus motion which was to suppress physical evidence.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.

The Supreme Court did not err in denying that branch of the defendant's omnibus motion which was to suppress physical evidence. While the People conceded at the suppression hearing that the initial stop was not justified, the defendant's free and independent action in pointing a gun at a plainclothes police officer, after that officer's identification of himself as a police officer, serves to render any connection between the lawless conduct of the police and the discovery of the challenged evidence so attenuated as to dissipate the taint (see People v. Townes, 41 N.Y.2d 97, 102, 390 N.Y.S.2d 893, 359 N.E.2d 402 ). The defendant's act in pointing the firearm at the officer was an independent act involving a...