PRESS RELEASE
TO: ALL NEWS MEDIA
FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT, DISTRICT ATTORNEY
DATE: JULY 19, 2018
The Appellate Division, Third Department has affirmed the January 20, 2017 conviction of Francis Carey upon his plea of guilty of the crime of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.
Defendant’s conviction stems from an incident which occurred in the early morning hours of February 23, 2016. On that date, Kingston Police Officer DeFrance stopped a vehicle after running the vehicle’s license plate and discovering that the registration was suspended. Upon learning that the driver did not have a valid license, the officer asked defendant, who was a passenger, for his identification. When defendant provided it, DeFrance learned, following a computer check, that he was on parole. Defendant later volunteered he was on parole for “sales.” During that conversation, DeFrance also detected the distinct odor of alcohol, but defendant denied he had consumed any. At that point, DeFrance conducted a pat frisk for his safety, believing that defendant had violated the alcohol and curfew conditions of his parole. When the officer opened the defendant’s backpack, he found ammunition and later found a handgun on defendant’s person.
Following his plea of guilty to criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, defendant was sentenced in the Ulster County Court (Williams, J.) to a determinate term of 10 years followed by five years of postrelease supervision.
On appeal, defendant argued only that the pat frisk was unreasonable because the police did not have a reasonable suspicion that he was armed or posed a threat to the officer’s safety. A majority of the Appellate Division, Third Department, however, disagreed and affirmed defendant’s conviction.
On appeal, the defendant is represented by Assistant Public Defender Michael K. Gould, Esq. Assistant District Attorney Carly Burkhardt, Esq. handled the appeal for the District Attorney’s Office.