In a significant victory for public housing tenants, Onondaga
County Court (Aloi, J.) ruled on August 23, 2012, that guests of those
tenants could not be arbitrarily arrested for criminal trespass. In People v Finch,
(Index #11-0627), Mr. Finch, whose girlfriend and infant son lived in
public housing, was told by Syracuse police officers to stay off the
premises. He was arrested and charged with three counts of criminal
trespass and one count of resisting arrest, and was convicted after
trial in Syracuse City Court of two of the trespass counts and the
resisting arrest.
On appeal the County Court reversed and dismissed the
trespassing convictions, finding that, “[A] tenant with a lease to a
specific apartment in an apartment complex has the inherent right to
invite guests and therefore those guests by virtue thereof are
“licensed and privileged” to be in or upon the property. Clearly,
residents of a multi-unit apartment complex and their “invited guests”
have license or privilege to be in or upon the property and cannot be
found guilty of the crime of criminal trespass without more [proof] (see People v Graves, 72 NY2d 160; People v Bazile,
20 Misc3d 1127A).” The Court found that the prosecutor did not meet
their burden of proving that Mr. Finch”entered or remained unlawfully”
as there was no showing that his license had been revoked. County Court
paradoxically affirmed the resisting arrest charge, finding that
officer had probable cause to arrest Mr. Finch even though they knew
that he was the lawful guest of an existing tenant.
Mr. Finch was represented by Philip Rothschild, Senior Attorney, Hiscock Legal Aid Society Appeals Program. The brief is here.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Case Summaries - Fourth Department Decisions Released on July 6, 2012
Criminal Case Summaries
·
People
v Cobb (KA 11-01063) – 4AD found that the lower court erred by failing
to suppress a statement made by D, because the police did not advise him that he
had the right to remain silent. The Miranda
warnings were therefore legally insufficient.
The error, however, was harmless because D stated only that he lived in
the apartment in which he was arrested.
Also, among other things, D was the only person present in the apartment
when police arrested him, and another officer observed someone throw a bag of
crack cocaine from a bedroom window. D
was apprehended immediately after he left the bedroom.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)