Case ID: ny-2d_84/html/0917-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

[644 NE2d 1365, 620 NYS2d 809]
    The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Jerry Love, Appellant.
    Decided November 1, 1994
    
      APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL
    
      Miriam J. Hibel, New York City, and Philip L. Weinstein for appellant.
    
      Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney of New York County, New York City (Sylvia Wertheimer of counsel), for respondent.
   OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed.

The courts below did not err in determining that the police officers’ entrance into the hotel room was the result of a reasonably perceived emergency excusing the warrant requirement and that, consequently, their observation and seizure of the contraband in plain view was lawful (see, People v Mitchell, 39 NY2d 173, 177-178, cert denied 426 US 953). The nature and specificity of the police radio transmissions, their close temporal proximity, the reputation of the hotel as a locale for drug and prostitution activity, and the hostile reception by Sonya Cook, a woman in the room when the police officers knocked on the door, all support the finding of reasonableness of the perception that there was an emergency. Further, there is an undisturbed factual finding, supported by the record, that the search was not primarily motivated by an intent to arrest and seize evidence, which finding is binding on this

Court (see, Mitchell, supra, at 178). Finally, there was a reasonable association between the emergency and the place to be searched that was not disputed by the parties and, indeed, the specificity of both police radio transmissions leaves no doubt as to this association.

Chief Judge Kaye and Judges Simons, Titone, Bellacosa, Smith, Levine and Ciparick concur.

On review of submissions pursuant to section 500.4 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals (22 NYCRR 500.4), order affirmed in a memorandum.