PEOPLE v. KEATON (2025)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Ruth Pickholz, J.), rendered February 23, 2017, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony drug offender, to a term of two years, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant's arrest was based on probable cause.  The arresting officer acted based on information relayed by a fellow officer who acted as a “ghost,” and the description of defendant “was sufficiently specific to provide probable cause to the arresting officer in light of the close temporal and spatial proximity between the drug sale and defendant's arrest” (People v. Garcia, 199 A.D.3d 425, 425, 153 N.Y.S.3d 855 [1st Dept. 2021], lv denied 37 N.Y.3d 1161, 160 N.Y.S.3d 695, 181 N.E.3d 1123 [2022];  see People v. Ketcham, 93 N.Y.2d 416, 419, 690 N.Y.S.2d 874, 712 N.E.2d 1238 [1999]).  Defendant was arrested in a buy-and-bust operation conducted by police officers with training and expertise in drug enforcement, and suspiciously interacted with a codefendant who sold drugs to an undercover officer immediately before the buy-and-bust team received a positive buy signal from the undercover officer (see People v. Tapia, 230 A.D.3d 1009, 1010, 219 N.Y.S.3d 252 [1st Dept. 2024], lv granted 42 N.Y.3d 1055, 225 N.Y.S.3d 646, 250 N.E.3d 657 [2024]).

We find no basis for disturbing the hearing court's credibility determinations which are accorded great deference (see People v. Moore, 93 A.D.3d 519, 522, 940 N.Y.S.2d 274 [1st Dept. 2012], lv denied 19 N.Y.3d 865, 947 N.Y.S.2d 414, 970 N.E.2d 437 [2012]).