New York City Marijuana Arrest based on Tossed Joint thrown out because of Facial Insufficiency

New York Marijuana Arrests are especially high in New York City. No play on words intended. Smoking pot in public. Usually the defendant was smoking in a park or had the unique scent of marijuana emanating from their possessions before the New York City Police intervene. In People v. Velez, 2015CN008005, NYLJ 1202765159918, at *1 (Crim., NY, Decided August 12, 2016), the Defendant was charged with one count of Criminal Possession of Marihuana in the Fifth Degree (Penal Law §221.10 [1]) and one count of Unlawful Possession of Marihuana (Penal Law §221.05). As is often the predicate of a great many arrests, stops, searches, seizures and sometimes frisks, the New York City Police Officers swore that

“I observed the defendant holding a marijuana cigarette in a public place and open to public view. I then took the marijuana, one cigarette containing marijuana, from the ground where I observed the defendant discard it. I took marijuana, two bags containing marijuana not burning or open to public view, from the defendant’s pocket. I observed Police Officer Christopher O’Connor, Shield # [] of the Midtown North Precinct also take five bags containing marijuana from a container in the defendant’s bag…I believe the substance is marijuana based upon my professional training as a police officer making marijuana arrests, the odor emanating from the substance, an observation of the packaging, which is characteristic of marijuana, and a field test that confirmed that the substance is marijuana.”

The Defendant was arrested for the marijuana that the defendant allegedly threw to the ground. Was it in a public place? As The New York Law Journal Reports, “[a] Manhattan judge has tossed out a drug possession charge for a man accused of holding a marijuana cigarette in public, finding that the complaint against him did not adequately describe the public place where he allegedly committed the offense.”

[Reposted from www.CrimLawLI.org]

Police Misconduct, Marijuana Arrests, Vape Pen Arrests, School Suspension and Criminal Charges - Call the Law Offices of Cory H. Morris, 631-450-2515 (NYS) (954) 998-2918 (FLA)