Opinion
No. 570750/14.
09-15-2017
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Gerald HOWARD, Defendant–Appellant.
Judgment of conviction (Alexander M. Tisch, J.), rendered July 26, 2014, affirmed.
The accusatory instrument was not jurisdictionally defective. It charged all the elements of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree (see Penal Law § 220.03 ), and set forth sufficient factual allegations to show the basis for the arresting officer's conclusion that the substance at issue was a controlled substance. The instrument recited that police "recovered crack/cocaine residue" and "one loose rock of crack/cocaine" from the vehicle defendant entered, and that the officer believed the substance to be crack/cocaine "based upon [his] professional training as a police officer in the identification of drugs, [his] prior experience as a police officer making drug arrests, and an observation of the packaging, which is characteristic of this type of drug" (see People v. Smalls, 26 N.Y.3d 1064 [2015] ; People v. Kalin, 12 N.Y.3d 225, 231–232 [2009] ; People v. Pearson, 78 A.D.3d 445 [2010], lv denied 16 N.Y.3d 799 [2011] ).
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.
I concur.