People State New York v. Isa Brnja

Defendant urges, and the dissenting Judges at the Appellate Division agreed, that his arrest was without probable cause and that, though the police had a reasonable basis upon which to make inquiry, they exceeded constitutional bounds in transporting him from the scene of the inquiry to the scene of the robbery, where he was identified by the victim of the robbery. He contends that identification testimony, both in-court and pretrial, should have been suppressed, as should the revolver found on post-arrest station house search of the van he was seated in when first seen by the police. We conclude, however, that there was probable cause for arrest at the time defendant was placed in the police car for transportation to the robbery-scene showup and, therefore, do not reach the question, the basis of the dissent below, when, if ever, a person stopped by the police for inquiry on reasonable suspicion but not probable cause may be transported to the crime scene for possible identification. The order of the Appellate Division should, therefore, be affirmed.