THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK v. SABRIEL LAMBERTY (2024)

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

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. SABRIEL LAMBERTY, Defendant–Appellant.

Ind. No. , 3345

Decided: December 31, 2024

Webber, J.P., Moulton, Friedman, Mendez, Shulman, JJ.

Twyla Carter, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Sylvia Lara Altreuter of counsel), for appellant.

Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Andrew Kim of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Laura A. Ward, J.), rendered June 6, 2018, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of tampering with physical evidence and resisting arrest, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to an aggregate term of 11/212 to 3 years, unanimously reversed, on the law and the facts, and the indictment dismissed.

The People failed to demonstrate that the search of defendant's fanny pack was a proper search incident to a lawful arrest because they failed to establish either that the officer actually arrested defendant or intended to do so before opening his bag (see People v. Reid, 24 NY3d 615, 619 [2014]; People v. Mangum, 125 AD3d 401, 402 [1st Dept 2015] ).

Defendant's tampering and resisting arrest convictions were the direct result of the improper search and so must be reversed.

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