Opinion
July 12, 1991
Appeal from the Niagara County Court, Hannigan, J.
Present — Doerr, J.P., Green, Pine, Lawton and Davis, JJ.
Judgment unanimously reversed on the law, motion granted and indictment dismissed. Memorandum: The police stopped defendant's car based solely on an anonymous telephone tip that defendant possessed cocaine. Defendant was seized when the car was stopped (see, People v Sobotker, 43 N.Y.2d 559). In order to justify the stop, the police needed reasonable suspicion based on specific and articulable facts that defendant committed a crime (see, People v Ingle, 36 N.Y.2d 413, 418-420). The anonymous tip provided neither reasonable suspicion (People v Sobotker, supra; People v La Pene, 40 N.Y.2d 210, 222-224) nor probable cause (see, People v Bigelow, 66 N.Y.2d 417, 423-424) to justify the stop. To the extent that the decision in Alabama v White ( 496 U.S. 325) may be interpreted to support a contrary result, it is clear that this decision and the totality of circumstances test of Illinois v Gates ( 462 U.S. 213) upon which it relied, is unacceptable as a matter of State constitutional law (see, People v Johnson, 66 N.Y.2d 398, 406). Since the stop of defendant's car was unlawful, the contraband seized must be suppressed (see, Wong Sun v United States, 371 U.S. 471).