A Manhattan appeals court overturned a drug possession conviction, saying police improperly searched a suspect's jacket when it was beyond the defendant's “grabbable area.”

A 4-1 majority of the Appellate Division, First Department, said the defendant in People v. Morales, 918/09, “was sitting handcuffed inside a police car, the jacket was outside lying on the vehicle's trunk, and numerous officers were on the scene,” and thus “there was no reasonable possibility that defendant could have reached it.”

In a dissent that was criticized by the majority, Justice David Friedman (See Profile) wrote that “not all dangers in the world emanate from a defendant's grabbable area,” explaining that “an impact during the drive to the station might have caused a loaded gun in the jacket to discharge.”