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33 N.Y.2d 851

People v. S & L Processing Lab, Inc.

New York Court of Appeals

Decided December 27, 1973

New York Court of Appeals · decided 1973-12-27

Relies on Marcus v. Search Warrant of Property · A Quantity of Copies of Books v. Kansas

Decided 1973-12-27

Per Curiam.

¶1It is manifest that the officers’ direct observations were sufficient to establish probable cause for the issuance of the search warrant and, therefore, disclosure of the informant’s identity was not required. (See People v. Cerrato, 24 N Y 2d 1, 7; People v. Castro, 29 N Y 2d 324, 326; see, also, People v. Malinsky, 15 N Y 2d 86, 93-94.) The indictment must, nevertheless, be dismissed because of the impermissibly broad scope of the warrant’s terms. Without describing them by name or any other limiting language, it authorized the police to seize “ 8mm films cut and uncut, depicting males and females in various positions of sexual intercourse, sodomy and masturbation ”. The effect of this mandate, pursuant to which the police seized more than 300 reels of exposed film, was to delegate to them the function of determining whether the material was obscene and permitted their exercise of a “ wide police discretion without judicial supervision ”. (People v. Abronovitz, 31 N Y 2d 160, 164; see, also, People v. Rothenberg, 20 N Y 2d 25, 38; A Quantity of Books v. Kansas, 378 U. S. 205, 209; Marcus v. Search Warrant, 367 U. S. 717, 732.)

¶2The order appealed from should be reversed and the indictment dismissed.

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