Jordan v. State, 97-00011

Citation707 So.2d 338
Decision Date06 February 1998
Docket NumberNo. 97-00011,97-00011
Parties23 Fla. L. Weekly D413 Jeffrey Donald JORDAN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

Steve Pincket, Lakeland, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Tonja R. Vickers, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.

PATTERSON, Judge.

Jeffrey Jordan appeals from an order withholding adjudication and placing him on probation for possession of methamphetamine. He challenges the denial of his motion to suppress statements and evidence. We agree that the officer lacked a founded suspicion to stop Jordan's truck and that the ensuing search was tainted. Thus, we reverse the denial of the motion to suppress and vacate the order placing Jordan on probation.

On May 10, 1996, Deputy Stroud of the Polk County Sheriff's Office was on routine patrol. At about 11:50 p.m., he drove by Jordan, who was in a pickup truck parked in a dark area next to a closed business. The business had been burglarized in the past. When the deputy started to turn around to go back to the truck, Jordan pulled away. While driving behind Jordan's truck, the deputy noticed "all kinds of stuff" in the back and decided to stop Jordan to investigate if any of the items were stolen. As it turned out, the items in Jordan's truck were supplies he used in his work as a painter.

Deputy Stroud activated his emergency lights and stopped Jordan. Upon approaching Jordan's truck, the deputy saw Jordan place something under the seat. Deputy Stroud had Jordan get out of the truck and asked Jordan what he had put under the seat. Jordan was hesitant to answer, and the deputy testified, "I stressed to him I want to know what's underneath that seat before I let you go." Jordan then admitted that he had a little bit of "dope" and Deputy Stroud had Jordan sign a consent to search form. The deputy discovered a small amount of methamphetamine and paraphernalia.

Deputy Stroud did not have a founded suspicion of criminal activity to justify the stop of Jordan's truck. In McCloud v. State, 491 So.2d 1164 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986), this court reversed the denial of a motion to suppress under similar facts. There, McCloud was parked next to a boarded-up building under a "no trespassing" sign late at night in a "high-crime area." When McCloud saw the officers, he began to pull away. The only additional factor here is that Deputy Stroud saw "stuff" in the back of the truck, which he thought could have been stolen from the business. As Jordan argues, however, when Deputy Stroud approached the truck, he would have been able to see that the truck bed merely contained painting supplies. In fact, the trial court did not appear to rely on...

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18 cases
  • Baxter v. State
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • 27 Octubre 2023
    ... ... where officers stopped the defendant in a parking lot to ... "dispel their suspicions about his conduct"); ... Jordan v. State , 707 So.2d 338, 339 (Fla. 2d DCA ... 1998) (finding that law enforcement did not have reasonable ... suspicion to detain the ... ...
  • State v. Kindle, 5D00-2020.
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • 12 Abril 2001
    ...search thereafter given is generally considered invalid. See, e.g., Crooks v. State, 710 So.2d 1041 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998); Jordan v. State, 707 So.2d 338 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998), rev. dismissed, 717 So.2d 538 (Fla.1998). Thus we must first determine whether the stop was An officer's stop of an auto......
  • Paff v. State
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • 13 Agosto 2004
    ...in this case was unlawful because the circumstances did not support a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. See Jordan v. State, 707 So.2d 338 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998) (citing McCloud v. State, 491 So.2d 1164 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986)). The State suggests that Wardlow effectively overruled this lin......
  • Crew v. State
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • 12 Mayo 1999
    ...to dissipate the taint of the prior illegal police action and thus render the consent freely and voluntarily given." Jordan v. State, 707 So.2d 338, 339 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998) (citing Gonzalez v. State, 578 So.2d 729, 736 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991)); see Mitchell v. State, 558 So.2d 72, 73 (Fla. 2d DCA......
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