A New York appeals court has reversed a firearm conviction and dismissed the underlying indictment after ruling that police unlawfully searched a man they suspected of selling marijuana.
In a unanimous decision issued Thursday, the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department overturned Robert Fulladosa’s conviction for attempted second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Fulladosa was arrested in March 2022 after police received an anonymous tip describing a man who allegedly sold marijuana daily near 561 West 175th Street and usually carried a firearm in his waistband. Officers believed Fulladosa matched the description based partly on a previous gun-possession arrest at the same location.
The following day, officers saw Fulladosa engage in two hand-to-hand exchanges involving small objects and money. Neither buyer was stopped. When police approached Fulladosa, he was rolling a marijuana cigarette and playing loud music.
Officers frisked him but found no weapon. According to the ruling, they decided not to arrest him for the suspected drug transactions because the buyers had not been apprehended.
Police instead planned to issue Fulladosa a summons for disorderly conduct based on the loud music. After he said he did not have identification, officers handcuffed him and prepared to take him to the precinct. A search conducted before transport uncovered a loaded handgun and marijuana in his hoodie pocket.
The appeals court said prosecutors could not rely on probable cause stemming from the suspected drug activity to justify the search because officers had affirmatively decided not to arrest Fulladosa on that basis.
The court also rejected the disorderly conduct arrest as a valid justification for the search. Under state law, Fulladosa should have been issued an appearance ticket because officers already knew his identity and had a method of verifying it, the judges said. Fulladosa also offered to have his parole officer confirm his identity.
“Ultimately, the present case does not involve a simple misapprehension of the proper basis for the arrest,” the court said, finding that police deliberately declined to make a drug-related arrest and instead made an unlawful arrest for an alleged violation that called for an appearance ticket.
Fulladosa had pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and was sentenced as a second violent felony offender to five years in prison.
The appeals court ordered the gun and other evidence suppressed, reversed the conviction and dismissed the indictment.
