State v. Barnett
| Decision Date | 18 January 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-00391,89-00391 |
| Citation | 572 So.2d 1033,16 Fla. L. Weekly 231 |
| Parties | 16 Fla. L. Weekly 231 STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Richard James BARNETT, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Anne Y. Swing, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellant.
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Kevin Briggs, Asst. Public Defender, Bartow, for appellee.
The state argues in this appeal that the trial court erred when it suppressed the firearm and drug paraphernalia found in appellee, Richard James Barnett's, car. We reverse on the basis of State v. Arnold, 475 So.2d 301 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985) and Davis v. State, 461 So.2d 1361 (Fla. 2d DCA), rev. denied, 471 So.2d 43 (Fla.1985).
When Barnett was stopped, Polk County sheriff's deputies were looking for Ronnie Presley, the subject of several outstanding warrants. A detective had advised the deputies that Presley might be found in a certain silver Buick. The deputies knew that Presley and Barnett often rode together in that silver Buick, with Barnett driving and Presley riding along as a passenger.
When the deputies spotted the car, they pulled the car over, assuming Barnett would be driving and that Presley would be a passenger. The car had tinted windows so that the deputies could not see who was in the car until they pulled it over. When Barnett got out, Deputy Taylor looked inside and determined that Presley was not a passenger. Deputy Taylor asked Barnett where Presley was and Barnett said he did not know.
Deputy Taylor then asked Barnett for his driver's license and vehicle identification. When Barnett failed to produce a valid driver's license, the deputies ran a license and warrants check on him and discovered outstanding warrants against Barnett.
In the course of Barnett's subsequent arrest, the deputies found ammunition on Barnett's person and a firearm and drug paraphernalia in the car.
The trial court suppressed the firearm and drug paraphernalia, finding that law enforcement was not entitled to detain Barnett while awaiting the results of a computer check. The court found that once the officers determined that Presley was not in the car, Barnett should have been allowed to leave without further questioning.
This case turns on whether the officers, having already determined that Presley was not in the car, were justified in asking Barnett for identification. We find that they were. Citing the United States Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court, this court found in Davis v. State, 461 So.2d 1361 (Fla. 2d DCA), rev. denied, 471 So.2d 43 (Fla.1985), that the mere questioning of an individual, including a police request for identification, does not amount to a fourth amendment detention. 461 So.2d at 1363. See also State v. Arnold, 475 So.2d 301 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985). "[E]ven though most citizens will respond to a police request without being told they are free not to respond, this does not eliminate the consensual nature of the response." 461 So.2d at 1361.
We must conclude that the deputies' request for Barnett's driver's license was not a continuation of the stop, but constituted a consensual encounter. The evidence gained as the result of this encounter was, therefore, not the product of an illegal detention and should not have been suppressed.
Reversed and remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
I agree with the result reached in this case. However, I disagree that the facts constitute a consensual encounter. Officer Taylor, the deputy sheriff who approached Barnett, testified as follows:
Q. As soon as the driver got out you knew it wasn't Ronnie Presley; didn't you?
A. That's correct.
Q. Because you do know Mr. Barnett; don't you?
A. That's correct.
Q. And you also know Mr. Presley?
A. Yes.
Q. There was no question in your mind as soon as you saw who got out who it was?
A. That's correct.
Q. And when you walked up to the car and looked in you saw nobody else in that vehicle; did you?
A. That's correct.
Q. And at that time you did not know that there was any warrant or that Mr. Barnett was wanted in any way; did you?
A. No, I did not.
Q. Yet, you did not allow him to walk on and proceed about his business; did you?
A. That's correct.
Q. You also did not pull him for any traffic violations; did you?
A. That's correct.
That testimony does not support the basis for a consensual encounter. Both the Davis and Arnold cases, relied upon by the majority opinion, found that the police contact was a consensual encounter, relying upon Lightbourne v. State, 438 So.2d 380 (Fla.1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1051, 104 S.Ct. 1330, 79 L.Ed.2d 725 (1984). As stated in Davis, referring to Lightbourne:
[T]he Florida Supreme Court cited Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), for the proposition that nothing in the constitution prevents a police officer from addressing questions to anyone on the street. Under such circumstances, the person may refuse to cooperate and go on his way. The court then concluded that there was nothing in the record that indicated Lightbourne was not free to express an alternative to go on his way. The court explained that the police need questioning as a tool for effective enforcement of the criminal laws.
....
In a more recent opinion, I.N.S. v. Delgado, 466 U.S. 210, 104 S.Ct. 1758, 80 L.Ed.2d 247 (1984), on remand, 736 F.2d 1340 (9th Cir.1984), the court ruled that a consensual encounter between a police officer and a citizen can be transformed into a Fourth Amendment [sic] seizure if, in view of all the surrounding circumstances, a reasonable person believes he is not free to leave.
461 So.2d at 1362-63. Based upon the reasoning in these cases, I disagree that the facts involved in this case support a consensual encounter, either in the minds of Deputy Taylor or Barnett. As a driver of a vehicle, Barnett could not think that he had the right to refuse to produce a driver's license and registration and drive away from the deputies.
The facts in this case support that the deputies' actions constituted a seizure. Fourth amendment seizure occurs "when there is a governmental termination of freedom of movement through means intentionally applied." Brower v. County of Inyo, 489 U.S. 593, 597, 109 S.Ct. 1378, 1381, 103 L.Ed.2d 628, 635 (1989) (emphasis in original). The question, to me, therefore, becomes whether this seizure of Barnett was reasonable. I conclude that it was.
The Supreme Court has disapproved random stops made by law enforcement officers in an effort to apprehend unlicensed drivers and unsafe vehicles. The court observed that this practice would permit a "kind of standardless and unconstrained discretion [which] is the evil the Court has discerned when in previous cases it has...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Baldwin
...(1991) ("[A] seizure does not occur simply because a police officer approaches an individual and asks a few questions."); State v. Barnett, 572 So.2d 1033 (Fla. 2d DCA) (after determining that the person they sought was not in the car they had stopped, officers still were justified in askin......
-
Hines v. State
...501 U.S. 429, 438, 111 S.Ct. 2382, 115 L.Ed.2d 389 (1991); State v. Baldwin, 686 So.2d 682, 685 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996); State v. Barnett, 572 So.2d 1033 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991) (officer's request for defendant's driver's license and vehicle identification data constituted police-citizen encounter t......
-
State v. R.R., 96-1445
...simply because a police officer approaches an individual and asks a few questions." Baldwin, 686 So.2d at 684, (citing State v. Barnett, 572 So.2d 1033 (Fla. 2d DCA) (after determining that the person they sought was not in the car they had stopped, officers still were justified in asking t......
-
State v. Woodard, 95-01827
...encounters. See Jacobson v. State, 476 So.2d 1282 (Fla.1985); State v. Chang, 668 So.2d 207 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996); State v. Barnett, 572 So.2d 1033 (Fla. 2d DCA), rev. denied, 581 So.2d 163 (Fla.1991); Davis v. State, 461 So.2d 1361 (Fla. 2d DCA), rev. denied, 471 So.2d 43 (Fla.1985). The sec......