Opinion
No. 570248/12.
2013-12-13
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. David GRAVES, Defendant–Appellant.
The accusatory instrument was not jurisdictionally defective. The information alleged, inter alia, that, at a specified time and location, the arresting police officer observed defendant smoking crack cocaine from a pipe; that defendant dropped and “stomped” on the pipe during the arrest process, causing the pipe to shatter; that the officer recovered the “shattered pipe containing crack/cocaine residue from the ground”; and that the officer believed the substance was crack cocaine based upon “his professional training as a police officer in the identification of drugs [and] his prior experience as a police officer in drug arrests .” Giving the information “a fair and not overly restrictive or technical reading” (People v. Casey, 95 N.Y.2d 354, 360 [2000] ), we find “as a matter of common sense and reasonable pleading” (People v. Davis, 13 N.Y.3d 17, 31 [2009] ) that it established reasonable cause to believe and a prima facie case that defendant was guilty of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree (see Penal Law § 220.03; People v. Kalin, 12 N.Y.3d 225, 231–232 [2009];People v. Pearson, 78 A.D.3d 445 [2010],lv denied16 N.Y.3d 799 [2011];People v. Churchill, 38 Misc.3d 148[A], 2013 N.Y. Slip Op 50380[U][App Term, 1st Dept 2013], lv denied21 N.Y.3d 1002 [2013];People v. Jennings, 34 Misc.3d 137[A], 2011 N.Y. Slip Op 52407[U][App Term, 2nd, 11th and 13th Jud Dists 2011], lv granted19 N.Y.3d 962 [2012] ).