03-10-08 A-6040-05T4
An anonymous caller stated that a person in a burgundy
Durango with temporary license plates was flashing a gun at a
certain location late at night. Police proceeded to the scene,
located the vehicle and performed a pat-down search of its three
occupants. The search revealed no weapons. The police then
secured the occupants away from the vehicle and searched the
passenger compartment, finding a handgun beneath the front
passenger seat. While conducting the search, a fourth person,
later identified as the defendant, attempted to get to the
vehicle. When asked to leave the scene, he refused. Defendant
was then arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
When he was secured in the back of a patrol car, defendant
confessed that the handgun police found in the vehicle belonged
to him. After the denial of a motion to suppress the handgun on
the basis of an illegal search, defendant pled guilty to
unlawful possession of a weapon, resisting arrest, and unlawful
possession of a handgun by certain persons not to have weapons.
We reversed the convictions as to the unlawful possession
of a weapon and certain persons, based upon the illegality of
the search. The search was not justified under Terry v. Ohio
because the anonymous tip, standing alone, did not provide an
independent basis for the stop, frisk of the occupants, or
search of the vehicle.
