NY: State officers’ secondary inspection at immigration roadblock was without RS

Defendant was driving on US11 in New York and was stopped at an immigration checkpoint manned by 4-5 Border Patrol agents and state officers. He was driving from a Mohawk reservation to a smoke shop and had cigarettes in a U-Haul trailer. It was apparent both occupants were U.S. citizens, but defendant was referred for a secondary stop. “The basis for detaining and questioning defendant further ended when Jock told Hotz at secondary inspection that he had cigarettes in the trailer and that he was going from the Akwesasne Reserve to the Seneca Smoke Shop. This information gave rise to no reasonable inference of criminality in the possession or transportation of the [untaxed] cigarettes.” People v Jock, 2013 NY Slip Op 23176, 40 Misc. 3d 457, 967 N.Y.S.2d 818 (St. Lawrence Co. 2013).*

According to the SW affidavit, defendant sent an instant message to a known collector of child pornography expressing his interest in child pornography and requesting such an image from the collector. That shows a reasonable basis concluding that defendant, like the collector, used computer equipment to obtain pornographic images of children over the Internet. State v. Shields, 308 Conn. 678, 69 A.3d 293 (2013).*