Rights are a lot more interconnected than people think, and nowhere is that more true than with the Second Amendment. For example, we count on the First Amendment to make sure we can advocate in defense of it. We need the Fourth Amendment to prevent the state from just walking into our homes and taking our guns simply because they feel like it. Due process is how we’ve protected our gun rights in court.
But just as many police officers argue that certain laws restoring gun rights make it harder for them to do their jobs, the truth is that the Fourth Amendment does that, too.
And one New York man’s case makes that pretty clear.
A state appeals court has dismissed a weapon conviction because of an illegal police search.
In February 2023, defendant Chezere Purrier pleaded guilty before Monroe County Court Judge Michael L. Dollinger to second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
In a recent decision, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Fourth Department, unanimously reversed the conviction, vacated the plea, granted a defense motion to suppress tangible property and statements, and dismissed the indictment.
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The partner approached the driver’s side of the vehicle, and the Trooper who testified approached the passenger’s side of the vehicle. They asked the occupants to roll down the windows, and the Trooper who testified spotted an orange pill bottle with no markings on it in the center console of the vehicle.
After a brief conversation between the troopers, the Trooper who testified had the occupants exit the vehicle for a probable cause search — a determination that, according to the Trooper’s testimony, was made by his partner.
Purrier was handcuffed as soon as he was removed from the vehicle.
The Trooper testified that he was not sure why his partner said they had a probable cause search.
As the Trooper began walking Purrier to the back of the vehicle, the partner alerted him to a handgun on Purrier.
The problem, as the court noted, is that the presence of a pill bottle is not, in and of itself, probable cause. The Trooper stated he couldn’t see what was in the bottle, just the bottle itself.
But I’ve used pill bottles to hold change back in the day, especially when I had to deal with a toll road going to Virginia Beach. It kept all my toll coins handy, and I used an easy-open top so I wouldn’t have to fumble. I don’t know what was in Purrier’s pill bottle, but I know that it wasn’t drugs. Why? Because that wasn’t something he was charged with, according to a 2021 news report.
Yes, Purrier is apparently a repeat felon, and the fact that he had a gun is proof that New York’s gun laws don’t do jack, but the search was still just as illegal. The fact that he was a felon was the only reason he was arrested. How many law-abiding people deal with this kind of treatment, especially while carrying a firearm, only they don’t get charged?
And for a pill bottle that no one knew what was in it? No, I’m sorry, that doesn’t fly.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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