People v. Westerman

OPINION OF THE COURT

Herman Cahn, J.

The following constitutes the opinion, decision and order of the court.

The instant case presents the novel question of whether a police search of a car known to be rented by defendant is proper, when defendant was then a passenger in another car parked across the street. The time of the search was late at night; the place was a street in a high crime area in New York County. Defendant had just been searched incident to his arrest, and 14 live rounds had been found on his person. In response to the question “Where’s the gun?”, one of his fellow arrestees…