The Difficulty of Overturning the Denial of a Motion to Suppress in New York Criminal Courts — New York Criminal Attorney Blog — November 30, 2024

In a New York criminal case, an experienced criminal defense lawyer will often file what’s called a motion to suppress, asking the trial court to exclude incriminating evidence from the trial record based upon the fact that the evidence was unlawfully obtained by law enforcement. If the trial court denies this motion, it can be very hard to successfully appeal the denial. A recent case before the New York Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department, reminds us of this stark reality.

In the case, the defendant was charged with and convicted of criminal possession of stolen property in the third degree and criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree. His case began when officers, patrolling a neighborhood with reports of burglaries, approached the defendant as he carried a FedEx package. The defendant had just left a residential home’s front porch, and he gave the officers inconsistent answers for why he was walking the neighborhood in the first place. When he showed the officers his ID, one of the officers recognized that the ID was counterfeit.

During the course of the interaction, the defendant dropped the FedEx package on the ground, and the officers found $20,000 in cash inside the package. The defendant was then criminally charged. He filed a motion to suppress his statements to the police officers.

The trial court denied this motion, and the defendant then unsuccessfully appealed this denial. When an appeals court in New York reviews a trial court’s decision to deny a motion to suppress, the higher court must give “great deference” to the lower court. This essentially means that the higher court faces a high bar to disturb the lower court’s decision. The appellate court is not supposed to overturn the denial unless the trial court record “clearly supports” that the decision was incorrect.

In this context, it is difficult to successfully appeal the denial of a motion to suppress. In the recent case before the Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department, the court concluded that the officers had reason to question the defendant because of repeated burglaries in the area. What’s more, the defendant himself gave suspicious answers to their questions, and when he dropped the FedEx box in his possession, he surrendered the right to keep the officers from looking inside the box. Without any clear support to indicate that this decision was incorrect, the higher court denied the defendant’s appeal.  Lastly, after the close of the hearing the defense attorney tried to reopen the hearing to put in additional evidence.  He failed to use surveillance video that may have contradicted the police version and sought to put the videos in later.  That request was denied by the Court.

One of the best things you can do if you are facing burglary charges in New York is ensure that you have an aggressive attorney that gets your trial right the first time around. The attorney you retain should be well-versed in filing motions to suppress and should be diligent in using all possible facts in the record to support the motion. If you can hire a New York burglary attorney that can fiercely litigate the State’s case against you, you can give yourself the highest possible chance of getting your charges dropped.  Being prepared is key to winning cases.  It is rare that the Court will give you a second chance if your lawyer screws up.

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