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Daniel Griffin had challenged a guilty verdict on carrying a firearm without a license.

KINGSTON – The state Superior Court has upheld the conviction of a former Kingston police detective who was found guilty of carrying a firearm without a license.

Daniel Griffin was charged in May 2009 with the firearms violation after police uncovered the weapon inside his car, which had been impounded after his arrest on a separate charge of impersonating a police officer.

Griffin’s vehicle was seized on May 13, 2009, by Wilkes-Barre police after he was taken into custody on a warrant that had been issued relating to the impersonation charge, which stemmed from a traffic stop in Berks County.

In that case, police alleged Griffin, who had been fired from the Kingston Police Department, had falsely identified himself as a police officer to another officer who had stopped him for speeding.

Griffin was acquitted of the impersonation charge following a non-jury trial in Berks County in March 2010. That acquittal did not impact the separate firearms charge, which was filed by Luzerne County authorities.

Griffin was found guilty of the firearms charge in February after a non-jury trial. He appealed the case to the Superior Court, arguing that the trial judge erred when he denied a pre-trial motion that sought to suppress the evidence obtained from Griffin’s car, which had been seized without a warrant.

In his appeal, Griffin argued the search was invalid because police did not have probable cause to suspect they would find evidence of a crime. The Superior Court disagreed.

The court, in a ruling issued last week, noted Griffin’s vehicle had initially been seized without a search warrant, but was then held in a secure area until a warrant could be obtained.

The court found police had properly seized the vehicle because Griffin had already been taken into custody on the impersonation charge. It further found that officers had sufficient probable cause to suspect they might find evidence of a crime relating to the impersonation charge in the vehicle.