Opinion
9046.
September 28, 2006.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Rena K. Uviller, J., at hearing; Gregory Carro, J., at plea and sentence), rendered May 3, 2005, convicting defendant of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 5 to 10 years, unanimously affirmed.
Law Office of Jack Goldberg, New York (Donald J. Yannella of counsel), for appellant.
Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Jung Park of counsel), for respondent.
Before: Mazzarelli, J.P., Andrias, Sullivan, Nardelli and McGuire, JJ.
The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. There is no basis for disturbing the court's credibility determinations, which are supported by the record ( see People v Prochilo, 41 NY2d 759, 761). After observing a traffic infraction, the police made a lawful stop of the livery cab in which defendant was riding ( see People v Robinson, 97 NY2d 341; People v Irizarry, 282 AD2d 483, lv denied 97 NY2d 705). After properly asking defendant to step out of the cab ( see People v Alvarez, 308 AD2d 184, 187, lv denied 3 NY3d 657), an officer noticed a large bulge in defendant's crotch area. This observation, coupled with the officer's observation of defendant's furtive behavior when the cab was stopped, provided reasonable suspicion justifying a frisk ( see People v Williams, 287 AD2d 396, lv denied 97 NY2d 734; People v Duncan, 234 AD2d 8; compare People v Taveras, 155 AD2d 131, appeal dismissed 76 NY2d 871). When the officer touched the bulge and felt a hard object that he reasonably believed could be a gun, he was entitled to reach into the crotch area and remove the object, which consisted of a package of drugs ( see People v Thompson, 232 AD2d 267, lv denied 89 NY2d 947).