Lawline.com Faculty Member
I would like to thank Lawline.com for the opportunity to teach a couple of courses focusing on Landlord Tenant and Foreclosure Defense. Anybody who wants to view the courses can click the link below:
Nassau County Evictions
Knowing the venue where you are litigating your eviction is vital in several ways including the cost of the action. Nassau County in particular can be very costly due to some local town codes. In Nassau County, the Sheriff requires the landlord to pay for the moving expenses and first month’s storage charges for the tenant’s belongings. The reason for this cost is that Nassau County and the municipalities and townships inside Nassau County have ordinances and codes in place to protect the public health and welfare in their municipalities or towns. These town codes prevent garbage and discarded property from being left curbside. Faced with the dilemma of figuring out how to execute the warrant of eviction for landlords without leaving the tenant’s belongings curbside, the Sheriff decided to employ the services of a moving company to remove the tenants belongings and acquire a storage unit to hold such belongings. It is the responsibility of the Sheriff to ensure that the municipality collects these funds and does not take a financial loss. The Sheriff therefore demands that the landlord pay the moving and storage expense upfront. For more information regarding this aspect of Nassau County eviction proceedings, read the decision of
Part of NY’s Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree ruled unconstitutional
On May 13, 2014, in People v. Golb, the NY Court of Appeals struck down Section 1 of NY’s Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree as unconstitutional. The Court found 240.30 (1) unconstitutionally vague and overbroad under both the New York and Federal Constitutions. The Court stated that “any proscription of pure speech must be sharply limited to words which, by their utterance alone, inflict injury or tend naturally to evoke immediate violence.”
The NY Legislature has PROPOSED and PASSED an amended statute which contains major changes to section 1 of 240.30 – NY’s Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree:
- Section 1 now requires a threat of harm to person or property.
- additional changes were also made to sections 1-5, and
- section 6 has be eliminated
As of today, it does not appear that Gov. Cuomo has signed the bill into law.
The old statute (section 1 is no longer enforceable):
§ 240.30 Aggravated harassment in the second degree.
A person is guilty of aggravated harassment in the second degree when,
with intent to harass, annoy, threaten or alarm another person, he or
she:
1. Either (a) communicates with a person, anonymously or otherwise, by
telephone, by telegraph, or by mail, or by transmitting or delivering
any other form of written communication, in a manner likely to cause
annoyance or alarm; or
(b) causes a communication to be initiated by mechanical or electronic
means or otherwise with a person, anonymously or otherwise, by
telephone, by telegraph, or by mail, or by transmitting or delivering
any other form of written communication, in a manner likely to cause
annoyance or alarm; or
2. Makes a telephone call, whether or not a conversation ensues, with
no purpose of legitimate communication; or
3. Strikes, shoves, kicks, or otherwise subjects another person to
physical contact, or attempts or threatens to do the same because of a
belief or perception regarding such person’s race, color, national
origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability
or sexual orientation, regardless of whether the belief or perception is
correct; or
4. Strikes, shoves, kicks or otherwise subjects another person to
physical contact thereby causing physical injury to such person or to a
family or household member of such person as defined in section 530.11
of the criminal procedure law.
5. Commits the crime of harassment in the first degree and has
previously been convicted of the crime of harassment in the first degree
as defined by section 240.25 of this article within the preceding ten
years.
6. For the purposes of subdivision one of this section, “form of
written communication” shall include, but not be limited to, a recording
as defined in subdivision six of section 275.00 of this part.
Aggravated harassment in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor.
Maybe.
Riley v. California – “The Cell Phone Case”
On June 25, 2014, the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Riley v. California. In a unanimous decision the Supreme Court held that “police generally may not, without a warrant, search digital information on a cell phone seized from an individual who has been arrested.” Therefore, with some exceptions, officers must first secure a warrant before conducting a search of your cell phone incident to an arrest. The Court went on to explicitly state that “even though the search incident to arrest exception does not apply to cell phones, other case-specific exceptions may still justify a warrantless search of a particular phone.”
One such exception that may justify a warrantless search of a cell phone is exigency. The Court stated that exigent circumstances “could include the need to prevent the imminent destruction of evidence in individual cases, to pursue a fleeing suspect, and to assist persons who are seriously injured or are threatened with imminent injury.” The Court also stated that the exigent circumstances exception could be used to deal with “a suspect texting an accomplice who, it is feared, is preparing to detonate a bomb, or a child abductor who may have information about the child’s location on his cell phone.” Though not mentioned by the Court, the consent and abandonment exceptions may also apply under certain circumstances. I can also imagine a scenario where the plain view exception could be used to establish exigency or support a warrant application.
Additionally, the court stated that law enforcement officers “remain free to examine the physical aspects of a phone to ensure that it will not be used as a weapon—say, to determine whether there is a razor blade hidden between the phone and its case.”
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