PEOPLE v. BRANNON (2009)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Arlene R. Silverman, J.), rendered February 13, 2007, as amended April 19, 2007, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 2 to 4 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion.   There is no basis for disturbing the court's credibility determinations (see People v. Prochilo, 41 N.Y.2d 759, 761, 395 N.Y.S.2d 635, 363 N.E.2d 1380 [1977] ).   The combination of defendant's suspiciously evasive conduct, the officer's observation that defendant was carrying what was at the least a large and possibly dangerous knife, and defendant's acknowledgment, in response to a proper common-law inquiry, that he had a knife, permitted the officer to conduct a selfprotective frisk (see People v. Batista, 88 N.Y.2d 650, 654, 649 N.Y.S.2d 356, 672 N.E.2d 581 [1996];  People v. Benjamin, 51 N.Y.2d 267, 271, 434 N.Y.S.2d 144, 414 N.E.2d 645 [1980];  see also People v. King, 102 A.D.2d 710, 476 N.Y.S.2d 847 [1984], affd. 65 N.Y.2d 702, 492 N.Y.S.2d 1, 481 N.E.2d 541 [1985] ).