Appeals court reverses Queens gun conviction based on warrantless search

Photo via the Queens DA’s office.

By David Brand

A state appeals court vacated a conviction in a 2017 Queens Supreme Court gun possession case Wednesday, ruling that a judge with a recent history of reversals should have suppressed the evidence that prompted the charge in the first place.

Jeffrey Grimes pleaded guilty to second-degree possession of a weapon, resisting arrest and fifth-degree marijuana possession after police officers entered his house, arrested him and opened a bag containing a gun in April 2015. The cops were responding to a tip that Grimes was selling drugs and chased him into his house, according to court documents. 

Grimes’ attorney filed a motion to exclude the gun as evidence in the case because officers opened the bag and recovered the gun without a warrant. Justice Steven Paynter denied the motion to suppress the evidence and Grimes later pleaded guilty to gun possession.

Four appellate justices from the Second Department determined that the gun should not have been allowed into evidence.

“We agree with the defendant that the Supreme Court erred in denying that branch of his omnibus motion which was to suppress the physical evidence that was recovered from inside his backpack,” the justices wrote in their unanimous decision vacating the conviction, sentence and gun possession indictment charge.

A May article in the New York Law Journal raised questions about Paynter’s numerous suppression hearing reversals, with defense attorneys criticizing him for deferring to prosecutors and police. Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan defended Paynter in a letter to the Law Journal editor the next day.

A spokesperson for the Office of Court Administration told the Eagle that Paynter “interpreted the law one way and the Appellate Division Second Department obviously interpreted it differently.