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People v. Langhorne

Officer Lacked Probable Cause to Stop Vehicle for Use of High Beams, Conviction Reversed

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DECISION & ORDER

*1  Appeal from a judgment of the Justice Court of the Town of Riverhead, Suffolk County (Lori M. Hulse, J.), rendered August 22, 2016. The judgment convicted defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of driving while intoxicated per se. ORDERED that the judgment of conviction is reversed, on the law, and the accusatory instrument is dismissed.Defendant was charged with, among other things, driving while intoxicated per se (Vehicle and Traffic §1192 [2]) and ultimately pleaded guilty to that offense. The sole issue on this appeal is whether the police had probable cause to stop the vehicle that defendant was driving for defendant’s failure to dim the vehicle’s headlights.At a pretrial hearing “limited to the reasonable suspicion of the stop of the vehicle,” Town of Riverhead Police Officer Timothy Murphy testified that he had been on routine patrol at approximately 1:50 a.m. on December 5, 2014 on Meeting House Creek Road. Murphy had been traveling in a southeasterly direction, when a vehicle drove by him “going in the opposite direction with the bright lights on, creating a glaring, blinding condition to the oncoming traffic; namely me.” Murphy turned his vehicle around and stopped the vehicle, which was being driven by defendant, based on defendant’s violation of Vehicle and Traffic Law §375 (3). Defense counsel argued that “something in addition to glaring is required to be established in this type of case.”In a decision dated April 18, 2016, the Justice Court concluded “that the stop of defendant’s vehicle was lawful,” stating, among other

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