Opinion
571060/15
03-13-2019
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, v. Carlton BATTLE, Defendant-Appellant.
Per Curiam.
Judgment of conviction (Laurie Peterson, J.), rendered October 14, 2015, affirmed.
The accusatory instrument was not jurisdictionally defective. It charged all the elements of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree (see Penal Law § 220.03 ), and set forth sufficient factual allegations to show the basis for the arresting officer's conclusion that the substance at issue was a controlled substance. The instrument recited that police "took cocaine from inside the brim of the defendant's hat" and that the officer knew the substance was cocaine "based upon [his] professional training as a police officer in the identification of drugs, [his] prior experience as a police officer making drug arrests, and observation of the packaging, which is characteristic of this type of drug" (see People v. Smalls , 26 NY3d 1064 [2015] ; People v. Kalin , 12 NY3d 225, 231-232 [2009] ; People v. Pearson , 78 AD3d 445 [2010], lv denied 16 NY3d 799 [2011] ).