People v. Giles

OPINION OF THE COURT

Kassal, J.

At approximately 11:15 p.m. on November 19, 1984, Police Officers Joseph Hamilton, Kenneth Donohue and Jeffrey Tim-merman, members of the New York Police Department Taxi Robbery Squad, were in plain clothes and patrolling in an unmarked vehicle heading north on Bradhurst Avenue in upper Manhattan. At 148th Street, the police vehicle, driven by Officer Hamilton, passed a southbound taxicab driven by Juan Brea and containing defendant and two other black male passengers, Lamont Victor Townes and codefendant Wayne Johnson. Despite the absence of any traffic law…