NY Co.: Arrest of defendant bystander on arrest of another was unjustified

Defendant was arrested for talking to a man on the street that the police were moving in to arrest. The state framed the issue as whether the defendant had standing to challenge the arrest of the other man, but that was not the issue at all; it was his own arrest. At any rate, if the arrest of defendant depended on the probable cause to arrest the other man, the state failed to put on any proof of what the arrest for the other man was based on. People v McLoyd, 35 Misc. 3d 822, 946 N.Y.S.2d 829, 2012 NY Slip Op 22027 (N.Y. Co. 2012):

While it is true that in some limited circumstances the courts have permitted the police to detain people in order to arrest another individual in complete safety, the circumstances in those cases typically involve confined spaces and a significant relationship between the suspect they are about to arrest and his or her companion. …

Here, there were no such circumstances justifying the forcible detention of defendant. Six police officers, fully armed and wearing bulletproof vests and tactical gear, presented overwhelming force while defendant was simply walking away from Davis. Defendant had done nothing to suggest he posed a risk to the officers, and his minimal connection to Davis — a brief conversation on a public street in front of a bodega — does not support an inference that the two were confederates in wrongdoing or that they even knew each other. Certainly, the legitimate and understandable caution of police officers engaged in the dangerous task of arresting a violent fugitive may have permitted Detective Kuhnapfel to approach defendant to gain some explanatory information regarding if and how well he knew Davis. It may also have permitted him to briefly detain defendant, short of a forcible seizure, to ensure that defendant posed no risk to the arresting officers. But defendant’s mere presence in the company of a person the police intended to arrest did not permit the police to summarily force defendant against a nearby wall. The frisk that followed was the direct result of this impermissible forcible detention, and thus the recovery of the weapon was unlawful.

The SWAT Team making street arrests? What has NYC come to? Sounds like an armed camp.