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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Drug Related (Possession or sale) |
Sentence: |
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Years Imprisoned: |
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Year Crime: |
2008 |
Year Convicted: |
2009 |
Year Cleared: |
2010 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
New York |
County or Region of Crime: |
Nassau |
City of Crime: |
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Result: |
Judicially Exonerated |
Summary of Case: |
"Christian Lopez was wrongly convicted in 2009 of drug related charges in Nassau County, New York. Lopez' conviction was based on evidence seized on May 21, 2008 after the officer's pulled their car in front of Lopez' vehicle that prevented him from leaving a bar that had a reputation for drug activity. The officers then seized what they believed was illegal drugs and claimed that Lopez made incriminating statements. After his conviction Lopez appealed, arguing he search of his vehicle and his statements were illegally obtained because they police had no reasonable basis to believe he had done anything illegal. On July 20, 2010 the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department "Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law and the facts, those branches of the defendant's omnibus motion which were to suppress physical evidence and his statements to law enforcement officials are granted, the indictment is dismissed." The Court's ruling stated, "The conduct of the police in pulling in front of the defendant's vehicle, and blocking his ability to exit the parking lot, constituted a stop, which required reasonable suspicion that the defendant or other occupants of the vehicle were either involved in criminal activity or posed some danger to the police. ... The fact that the defendant was sitting in a vehicle in the parking lot of an open business, with the interior light of his vehicle on, looking down, is capable of numerous innocuous explanations, and cannot be characterized as suspicious conduct. Accordingly, the stop was illegal, and the physical evidence and the defendant's statements should have been suppressed as the fruits of that illegal action." (People v. Lopez, 75 A.D.3d 610 (Appellate Div of the Supreme Ct of NY, 2d Dept. 2010)" |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
"On July 20, 2010 the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department "Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law and the facts, those branches of the defendant's omnibus motion which were to suppress physical evidence and his statements to law enforcement officials are granted, the indictment is dismissed."" |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Sex: |
Male |
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Information Source 1: |
"People v. Lopez, 75 A.D.3d 610, 905 N.Y.S.2d 647 (Appellate Div of the Supreme Ct of NY, 2d Dept. 2010) (Reversing conviction and ordering dismissal based on illegally obtained evidence.)" |
Information Location 1: |
https://casetext.com/case/people-v-lopez-274 |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org