It is hereby ordered that the case is held, the decision is reserved, and the matter is remitted to Onondaga County Court for further proceedings in accordance with the following memorandum: Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree (Penal Law § 220.21 [1]). The sole contention of defendant on appeal is that County Court erred in refusing to suppress physical evidence seized by the police from the trunk of his vehicle. The evidence at the suppression hearing established that the police stopped the vehicle driven by defendant based on his violation of a noise ordinance. The police had received numerous complaints of drug activity in the area in which defendant’s vehicle was stopped. Two officers approached defendant and requested his license, registration, and insurance information, which he provided, and the officers returned to their vehicle. While seated in their vehicle, they observed defendant reach toward “the center console, front passenger seat area” and, in testifying at the suppression hearing, defendant admitted that he had reached over and opened the center console. The officers testified that they believed that defendant was either retrieving or concealing a weapon or illegal contraband. They ordered defendant to step outside his vehicle, whereupon one of the officers patted him down and retrieved a large wad of money in small denominations consistent with street level sales of cocaine. At that point, defendant began to behave in a nervous manner. One of the officers searched the front passenger seat area but did not find anything. The officer then searched the rear passenger seat area and found a digital scale with white residue on it. The officer then searched the front driver’s side area, where he found small pieces of white residue resembling crumbs of crack cocaine. Based on the discovery of the scale in the rear passenger seat area and the white residue in the front driver’s side and rear passenger seat areas, the officers conducted a full search of the vehicle and found cocaine in the trunk of the vehicle. In refusing to suppress the cocaine, the court determined that the police were justified in searching the “grabbable area” of the vehicle. That was error.
“A police officer acting on reasonable suspicion that criminal
Here, the police properly conducted a limited search of defendant’s vehicle. The police stopped defendant’s vehicle in an area in which there had been numerous complaints of drug activity. As the police were reviewing the information provided by defendant with respect to his license, registration, and insurance, they observed defendant reach toward the passenger side of the vehicle, and they feared that defendant was retrieving or concealing a weapon. Upon conducting a pat-down search, the police recovered a large “wad” of money in small denominations consistent with the street level sale of cocaine, and defendant began to behave in a nervous manner. Under those circumstances, the police were justified in conducting a limited search of those parts of the vehicle in which they had observed defendant’s furtive movements, i.e., the front passenger area and center console (see People v Mundo, 99 NY2d 55, 59 [2002]; Carvey, 89 NY2d at 712; People v Fludd, 20 AD3d 351, 353 [2005], lv denied 5 NY3d 852 [2005]; People v Cheek, 18 AD3d 475, 476 [2005], lv denied 5 NY3d 786 [2005]; People v Anderson, 17 AD3d 166, 168 [2005]). The search should have ended, however, when the police found no weapon or contraband in the front passenger area and center console.
As an alternative ground for affirmance, the People contend