Opinion
April 29, 1991
Appeal from the County Court, Nassau County (Belfi, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The defendant, a passenger in a vehicle which he concedes was lawfully stopped, opened the glove compartment to retrieve the registration in apparent response to the request that the driver produce a license and registration. In the process, the defendant pulled out with the registration a glassine package containing green vegetable matter which the arresting State Trooper testified he believed, based on his training and experience, to be marihuana. The defendant was ordered out of the vehicle, thus revealing on the passenger seat a vial of a white powdery substance which the trooper believed to be cocaine. The defendant and the driver were placed under arrest and a pat-down search of defendant produced more contraband, as did an ensuing search of the console area near the passenger seat.
Although the defendant contends otherwise, the conduct of the State Troopers upon the lawful stop of the vehicle was in all respects proper (see, Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106; People v. Robinson, 74 N.Y.2d 773, cert denied 493 U.S. 966; cf., People v. Singleton, 41 N.Y.2d 402; see also, Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752; People v. Belton, 55 N.Y.2d 49). The County Court thus properly denied the defendant's motion to suppress physical evidence. Lawrence, J.P., Harwood, Rosenblatt and O'Brien, JJ., concur.