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Syracuse man spent two years in prison before higher court rules gun search illegal
Syracuse, N.Y. — A Syracuse man who spent nearly two years in state prison had his conviction for an illegal, loaded gun tossed because troopers didn’t have the right to frisk him in the first place, a state appellate court has ruled.The case highlights competing interests of confiscating illegal guns and protecting someone’s constitutional rights.
Montra Hodge Jr., 59, was the passenger in a 2005 Chevrolet Silverado that was hauling an unregistered trailer south on Interstate 81 in January 2020 in Cicero.
State troopers stopped the pickup truck and tried to confirm the identity of the driver and the passenger. They asked Hodge, the passenger, to get out. Troopers were going to frisk him.
That’s the point the appellate court ruled they had gone too far.
The troopers didn’t have “reasonable suspicion” that Hodge had committed a crime at that point in the stop, the court ruled. That suspicion is needed to allow officers to frisk someone during a stop, the court ruled.
Syracuse man spent two years in prison before higher court rules gun search illegal
Onondaga County prosecutors will not appeal ruling that troopers didn't have the right to search him without reasonable suspicion.
www.syracuse.com
