Can a criminal suspect who assaulted an identified police officer down the stairs and continues to assault the officer after he has been arrested?

On the present facts, when defendant opened his hallway door and kicked an identified police officer down the stairs and continued to assault him, it constituted free, independent, calculated action, which "taken after and in spite of, or perhaps because of [the police] identification ... served to render any 'connection between the lawless police conduct and the discovery of the [weapon] "so attenuated as to dissipate the taint." ' " People v. Townes, 41 N.Y.2d 97, 102, 390 N.Y.S.2d 893, 359 N.E.2d 402 (1976). This is especially true here, where the officer's objective was to locate the child's mother, not to search for evidence. Thus, the "police illegality lacked the 'quality of purposefulness' to uncover incriminating evidence." People v. Boodle, 47 N.Y.2d 398, 404, 418 N.Y.S.2d 352, 391 N.E.2d 1329 (1979).

When, after the assault upon Donnelly, defendant retreated back into his apartment, the police were justified in entering the apartment and arresting him. People v. Thomas, 164 A.D.2d 874, 559 N.Y.S.2d 380 (2nd Dept.1990) (criminal suspect may not [163 Misc.2d 165] thwart an otherwise proper arrest which has been set in motion in a public place by retreating into his residence).