A 4-1 ruling by a panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, Thursday refused to overturn a lower court holding that the gun leading to Stanley Hardee’s conviction and 16 years-to-life sentence was the fruit of an unconstitutional search.
Hardee’s car was stopped for going twice the 30 mile-per-hour speed limit down Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue shortly after 1 a.m. in July 2010. When three plainclothes police in an unmarked car stopped and questioned Hardee, he appeared “wide-eyed” and “hyper,” police later testified.
