F.P. v. State, 87-2082
| Decision Date | 19 July 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 87-2082,87-2082 |
| Citation | 13 Fla. L. Weekly 1682,528 So.2d 1253 |
| Parties | 13 Fla. L. Weekly 1682 In the Interest of F.P., a child, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Michael E. Allen, Public Defender, and David A. Davis, Asst. Public Defender, and Eric Cumfer, Legal Intern, Tallahassee, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Kurt L. Barch, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.
In this appeal from an order of commitment for juvenile delinquency, F.P. challenges the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress physical evidence which he claims was produced as the result of a warrantless search, and statements he made to a police officer immediately after the search. The State contends that appellant voluntarily produced the evidence without coercion, and that even if the actions of the School Resource Officer were considered a search without appellant's consent, they satisfied the "reasonableness" standard for searches conducted by school officials enunciated by the United States Supreme Court in New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 105 S.Ct. 733, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985), and therefore the State did not need to prove that there existed probable cause to believe that the search would produce evidence of a crime, the stricter standard applicable to police searches. We hold that the "school official exception" is not applicable under the factual circumstances of this case, and remand for clarification of the trial judge's ruling.
David Ferrell, an investigator for the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD), was questioning G.B. at a middle school regarding a burglary when G.B. told him that F.P., a thirteen year old schoolmate, had earlier that morning shown him new GM car keys and an "automotive paper" and said that he had a stolen vehicle. Ferrell had no prior experience with G.B. and had no report of stolen car keys, but he knew that F.P. and other juveniles had previously been involved in stealing vehicles.
Ferrell advised Jackie Flint, the School Resource Office (SRO), 1 of the situation and his belief that F.P. had a stolen vehicle somewhere and the keys in his possession. The officers tried to locate F.P. in order to recover the allegedly stolen keys and vehicle, but were not able to find him.
After Ferrell left, Flint saw F.P., called Ferrell, and took the juvenile to her office, where she asked him if he had anything he needed to give her. F.P. took car keys and a paper out of his pocket and put them on her desk. When Ferrell returned a few minutes later, he explained why he was there and gave F.P. Miranda warnings, whereupon F.P. waived his rights and told Ferrell that he found an envelope containing the car keys and paper on a white Pontiac behind a rental car agency, and that he planned to return later and drive the car around if he could locate it.
Delinquency proceedings were instituted and appellant moved to suppress the physical evidence and his statements to the officer. He testified at the hearing that Flint told him the "deputy" (Ferrell) said he was to empty his pockets. The State argued that there was no search, only a voluntary production of evidence; that even if it were a search, it satisfied the "reasonableness" standard for search of a student by a school official because there existed reasonable grounds for suspicion that appellant possessed evidence of a crime; and that even if the search were improper, the subsequent confession was admissible under State v. Thomas, 405 So.2d 462 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981).
The Public Defender argued that the school official exception was not applicable because Flint was a law enforcement officer; that appellant did not consent to the search, but acquiesced to the apparent authority of a police officer; and that the police did not have probable cause to search appellant because the information from G.B. was not verified...
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...at a school dance conducted a search on their own initiative, with only minimal contact with school o൶cials). In F .P. v. State , 528 So. 2d 1253, 1254 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1988), the court required probable cause where an outside police o൶cer investigating a car theft initiated the search ......