Opinion
April 17, 1989
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Clabby, J.).
Ordered that the order is affirmed.
We agree with the hearing court's conclusion that any reasonable fear on the part of the police for their safety abated once a protective frisk of the defendant revealed a single bulge which neither looked nor felt like any identifiable weapon and which the searching officer believed to be plastic bags of narcotics which were stacked atop one another in the defendant's jacket pocket. Once the reasonable fear for safety abated, the police officer was required to discontinue his search, and his subsequent seizure of contraband from the defendant's pocket was therefore improper (see, People v. Roth, 66 N.Y.2d 688; People v. Vullis, 131 A.D.2d 616; People v. Johnson, 130 A.D.2d 685; People v. Robinson, 123 A.D.2d 796; People v McGriff, 99 A.D.2d 818).
We do not consider the People's remaining contention, as it was neither advanced before nor considered by the hearing court (see, People v. Johnson, 64 N.Y.2d 617, 619 n 2; People v. Dodt, 61 N.Y.2d 408, 416). Rubin, J.P., Kooper, Sullivan and Balletta, JJ., concur.