People v. Pealer

Pigott, J. (dissenting in part).

While I concur with the majority’s Confrontation Clause analysis, I part company with it on the reasonableness of the police officer’s initial stop of defendant. The suppression court ruled that the police officer lacked probable cause to stop the defendant but for the fact that defendant had a Finger Lakes Community College sticker in the rear window (police officer: “I can’t recall what side it was on, the left or the right”).

Prior to 2001, all four Departments of the Appellate Division uniformly held that evidence obtained as a result of pretext stops was…