Lucien v. State
| Decision Date | 07 March 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-1440,89-1440 |
| Citation | 557 So.2d 918 |
| Parties | 15 Fla. L. Weekly D629 Jean LUCIEN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Cherry Grant, Asst. Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Patricia G. Lampert, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.
Appellant pled nolo contendere to possession of cocaine reserving his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress.
The facts are undisputed. At 5:30 a.m. Ms. Martinez heard someone knocking on her house door. She did not recognize the person and called the police. When an officer responded he saw appellant about three houses away walking down the street. The officer stopped appellant and asked him if he had knocked on the door. Appellant said, "yes." When asked why, appellant stated, "because I want to talk to somebody." When asked to identify himself, appellant replied, "I'm the police," which prompted the real police to arrest him for loitering and prowling. The officer conducted a body search incidental to the arrest and found the cocaine in appellant's pocket.
A police officer may make a warrantless arrest for loitering and prowling if he or she sees an accused (1) loitering and prowling in a place, time or manner not usual for law-abiding citizens and (2) the circumstances warrant justification and reasonable alarm or immediate concern for the safety of persons or property in the vicinity. § 856.021, Fla.Stat. (1987). The failure to provide identification or a reasonable explanation for the questioned activity are not elements of the crime. The criminal conduct must be completed prior to any attempt to identify or explain. See State v. Rash, 458 So.2d 1201 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984). When there is an arrest for loitering and prowling all elements of the misdemeanor offense must occur in the officer's presence, T.L.M. v. State, 371 So.2d 688, 689 (Fla. DCA 1979) (citing Kirby v. State, 217 So.2d 619 (Fla. 4th DCA 1969)), and only a police officer's own observation may be considered in determining whether probable cause exists to make the warrantless misdemeanor arrest. See Springfield v. State, 481 So.2d 975 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986).
Nothing appellant did in the presence of the officer justified alarm or immediate concern for the safety of persons or property in the vicinity. The place, time or manner of the appellant...
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G.E.C. v. State
...probably have justified his arrest under the current statute.5 T.T. v. State, 572 So.2d 21 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990); Lucien v. State, 557 So.2d 918, 919 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990); D.A. v. State, 471 So.2d 147 (Fla. 3d DCA ...
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Cortez v. State, 92458.
...2d DCA 1994), Freeman v. State, 617 So.2d 432 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993), G.E.C. v. State, 586 So.2d 1338 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991), Lucien v. State, 557 So.2d 918 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990), T.L.F. v. State, 536 So.2d 371 (Fla. 2d DCA 1988), and Springfield v. State, 481 So.2d 975 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986). Upon cl......
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Jones v. State
...a finding that the officer had probable cause to arrest [the defendant] for loitering and prowling.Id.; see also Lucien v. State, 557 So.2d 918 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990); A.D., 817 So.2d at 1027. Here, the State did not establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant was loitering......
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P.R. v. State
...Springfield, 481 So.2d at 977. Therefore, both elements of the crime must occur in the officer's presence. See Lucien v. State, 557 So.2d 918, 919 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990); but see Joseph D. Robinson, A Loitering and Prowling Primer, 71 Fla. B.J. 59, 60 (Nov.1997) (criticizing Lucien in circumst......
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A loitering and prowling primer.
...for loitering and prowling may have been successful.[6] An example of a wrongly decided case on this issue is Lucien v. State, 557 So. 2d 918 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990), in which the Fourth District Court of Appeal threw out a loitering and prowling arrest on the following facts: At 5:30 a.m. a wo......