Bad Police Stop Springs Prisoner from Drug Sentence

COURT HOUSE — A day after his 32nd birthday, a man sentenced on drug possession charges two years ago received a belated present from two appeals court judges.
On Wed., July 14, Appellate Division Judges Christine Miniman and Alexander Waugh overturned the conviction of Donald (a.k.a. Huba) Wright, who was arrested in West Cape May at about 2 a.m. on Aug. 9, 2007 for third-degree possession of crack cocaine and marijuana.
The appellate panel found that Cape May Special Police Officer Scott Krissinger made an unconstitutional stop of Wright and thereby tainted the drug evidence he found as a result of the stop.
According to court documents, Krissinger observed Wright sitting on a bench in Wilbraham Park. The officer knew Wright from helping to process him at the police station on a prior occasion. Krissinger testified that Wright appeared nervous and “kept looking back over his shoulder at [his] patrol car.”
After Wright left his seat, Krissinger examined the area and saw graffiti on the bench. The officer caught up with Wright at a 7-Eleven convenience store across the street, and questioned him about the graffiti, noticing that he held a plastic bag large enough to hold a black marker.
During questioning, Wright used profanity, tried to pass his bag to another person, knocked some documents out of Krissinger’s hands, ran away and threw the bag to the side of the road as he fled.
Krissinger and another officer were able to apprehend Wright and recover the bag, which was found to contain six bags of crack cocaine and a wrapper of marijuana. There was no black marker inside the bag.
In September 2007, Wright was indicted on the possession charge. He moved to suppress the drugs found in the plastic bag, because Krissinger had no evidence that Wright had committed a crime, and thus, there was no “reasonable and articulable” suspicion to conduct a stop.
The prosecution argued that there was reasonable suspicion justifying the stop because there had been “a series of acts of graffiti in the area,” Wright acted aggressively and attempted to flee, which escalated the suspicion, thereby creating probable cause for the arrest.
On April 18, 2008, the trial judge denied Wright’s motion to suppress, finding that Wright’s response to Krissinger, and his subsequent actions, gave Krissinger sufficient suspicion.
“This court concludes that this officer, certainly, had reasonable articulable suspicion to believe that an offense had been committed,” the trial judge stated. “If not limited, solely, to the graffiti, but something beyond…I find his (Krissinger’s) conduct to be rational, well measured, reasonable and constitutional.”
Wright pled guilty to possession on May 8, 2008. He was sentenced to four years of incarceration on August 15, 2008, a year after the arrest.
On May 15 this year, Wright appealed.
The appeals court found in his favor, holding that Krissinger acted unconstitutionally because his actions amounted to an investigatory stop for which he had no reasonable suspicion. The judges didn’t think the graffiti and Wright’s nervous behavior in the park late at night were enough for him to think a crime was committed.
“We further hold that the almost simultaneous seizure of the plastic bag was tainted by the unconstitutional stop,” the appeals court found. “Consequently, we reverse the denial of the motion to suppress the cocaine contained in the bag and vacate Wright’s guilty plea.”
Wright, who was incarcerated in South Woods State Prison and had been serving time in a work release halfway house, will likely soon be released from state custody.