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People v. Funches

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department
Dec 5, 1995
222 A.D.2d 218 (N.Y. App. Div. 1995)

Opinion

December 5, 1995

Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County, Bernard Fried, J., Charles Tejada, J.


We agree with the suppression court that defendant's apparent flight from a second-floor window up the fire escape to the third-floor landing, as police responded to a call of a dispute in a second-floor apartment, enhanced the officer's suspicions about that apartment ( see, People v Crapo, 103 A.D.2d 943, affd 65 N.Y.2d 663; People v Farenga, 42 N.Y.2d 1092), and was a sufficient predicate for the minimal intrusion of coming onto the second-floor landing of the fire escape to look through the window. Defendant enjoyed only a minimal expectation of privacy in the fire escape landing outside his window, which was neither part of his apartment nor a curtilage thereof ( see, e.g., People v Hailstock, 54 Misc.2d 952). Moreover, consent given by an upstairs tenant to enter the fire escape from his apartment, by which access was afforded to the landing outside of defendant's window, also provided a sufficient predicate to enter the subject landing. There is no reason to distinguish between a consenting tenant whose apartment shares a fire escape landing with the searched apartment ( see, People v Church, 217 A.D.2d 444), and one whose apartment shares a stairway. Once the officer was lawfully on the landing, his plain view observation of the contraband a few feet inside of the open window provided the predicate for the warrantless entry of the apartment.

Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Ellerin, Wallach, Rubin and Mazzarelli, JJ.


Summaries of

People v. Funches

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department
Dec 5, 1995
222 A.D.2d 218 (N.Y. App. Div. 1995)
Case details for

People v. Funches

Case Details

Full title:THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. TREVIS FUNCHES, Also…

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department

Date published: Dec 5, 1995

Citations

222 A.D.2d 218 (N.Y. App. Div. 1995)
635 N.Y.S.2d 7

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