NY3: Voluntarily removing drugs from rectum during visual body search was consent

Defendant was suspected of drug dealing because of intercepted telephone calls and the use of coded words. When he was stopped, officers found Vaseline, and they knew that was used to hide drug evidence in the rectum. They had enough for a strip search and a visual body cavity search. He pulled it out on his own, and that was consent. People v. Cogdell, 2015 NY Slip Op 02023, 2015 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1974 (3d Dept. March 12, 2015):

The foregoing evidence, in our view, both provided the reasonable suspicion necessary for the initial strip search of defendant and furnished the “specific, articulable factual basis” (People v Hall, 10 NY3d at 311) required in order to undertake the subsequent visual cavity inspection of his person (compare People v Gonzalez, 57 AD3d 1220, 1221-1222 [2008]). We also are satisfied that this visual cavity inspection was conducted in a reasonable manner, i.e., in a private room with only male officers present. Finally, inasmuch as the record reflects that defendant himself removed and turned over the drugs in question, no violation of defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights occurred (see People v Hunter, 73 AD3d at 1281). Accordingly, we discern no basis upon which to disturb County Court’s denial of defendant’s suppression motion.