Opinion ID: 2214563
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: People v Finley

Text: On June 24, 2004, defendant and four other inmates were standing near the A-Block of Orleans Correctional Facility. That area of the prison was off-limits to defendant and one of his companions, an inmate known as Midget. Observing defendant and Midget, Correction Officer Baptiste, a 19-year veteran with 17 years' experience in the Orleans facility, determined that the two were smuggling stuff or trying to pass something. In response, the officer directed the 60 inmates that he was charged with supervising to the inside portion of A-Block. Those inmates remained there unsupervised during the course of Officer Baptiste's encounter with defendant. At Baptiste's request, defendant produced his prison identification card from one of his pockets. A wad of toilet paper also emerged from the pocket and defendant threw it to the ground. Baptiste then ordered defendant to put his hands against the wall in preparation for a pat-frisk. During the frisk, defendant took his hands off the wall and pointed toward the discarded wad. In response to defendant's pointing, Midget nodded his head as if to indicate yes. Observing this apparent communication, Officer Baptiste questioned defendant about the wad. When defendant claimed to lack knowledge of it, Baptiste turned his back to defendant and retrieved the wad from the ground. The wad contained [t]hree joints, one of which subsequently tested positive for marihuana. Other officers then handcuffed defendant and removed him from A-Block. On January 24, 2005, the grand jury of Orleans County handed down an indictment charging defendant with, as relevant here, one count of promoting prison contraband in the first degree, a class D felony. To establish the dangerous nature of marihuana at defendant's trial, the People called an expert witness, Vernon N. Fonda, a Deputy Inspector General in DOCS's Narcotics Unit. Inspector Fonda, who has served in various investigative capacities with the Narcotics Unit since 1993, opined that marihuana's status as an illegal and highly-prized prison commodity caused negative effects on prison safety and security. He testified that defendant's possession of marihuana created a dangerous situation because it required Baptiste to leave the inmates in his care unsupervised and exposed him to a possible assault by defendant. [1] This potential danger was only heightened because defendant might have been acting under the influence of marihuana. Further, by throwing the wad containing the three joints to the ground, defendant created a possible danger that another inmate might grab it and flee, forcing Baptiste to leave A-Block unattended. Discarding the marihuana also exposed Baptiste to a potential attack from the rear during the time he was busy retrieving it. On cross-examination, Fonda acknowledged that the presence of contraband food could also create a dangerous situation inside a prison, if [inmates have] gotten into arguments over food that escalate[d] into ... a fight or some type of altercation. In addition, Fonda agreed that a correction officer's supervision of 60 inmates [a]bsolutely has a certain degree of inherent danger. And he indicated that in [a] broad pen[o]logical sense the presence of marihuana in a prison is always dangerous. Defendant moved to dismiss the People's case on the ground of insufficient evidence, arguing that the prosecution failed to prove that the particular amount of marihuana at issue posed a danger to the Orleans facility. County Court denied the motion, reasoning that the term dangerous, as used in Penal Law § 205.00 (4) and § 205.25 (2), means the potential for violence and problems. County Court did hold, however, that defendant was entitled to a jury charge on the lesser-included misdemeanor of promoting prison contraband in the second degree. The jury convicted defendant of the felony promotion of contraband offense. He was sentenced as a second felony offender to an indeterminate prison term of 3 to 6 years to run consecutive to his previously imposed sentence. The Appellate Division affirmed. Citing Salters, the court held that Fonda's testimony regarding the potential risks created when defendant threw the concealed marihuana to the ground was legally sufficient to support the felony promotion of contraband conviction because the testimony provided specific evidence that the particular marihuana that was possessed by ... defendant endangered the safety of the facility ( see 42 AD3d 917, 919 [2007] [internal quotation marks and brackets omitted]). We now modify and remit to County Court for resentencing.