State v. Cantrell
| Decision Date | 19 January 1983 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 81-775,81-776,s. 81-775 |
| Citation | 426 So.2d 1035 |
| Parties | STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Katherine Ann CANTRELL, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Peggy A. Quince, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellant.
J. Stanford Lifsey, Tampa, for appellee.
In yet another variation of the drug buy-bust scenario, police officers made a warrantless entry into the defendant's home to arrest her. The trial judge quashed the arrest and suppressed evidence seized by the officers after their entry. The state appeals; we reverse.
The defendant telephoned a confidential informant of the police department and told him that she had cocaine for sale. At 3:00 on a Wednesday afternoon the confidential informant, accompanied by an undercover detective named Dial, went to the defendant's apartment to purchase the cocaine. Upon their arrival, the defendant told them that the cocaine was not there and that they should return at a later time after the defendant made a telephone call to them. Detective Dial subsequently received such a phone call and returned to the defendant's apartment with the confidential informant at 5:00 p.m. on the same day. The defendant invited the two inside her apartment where she withdrew two bags of cocaine from a tray under a stereo set and exhibited them. She placed the cocaine on a coffee table in front of a couch next to the stereo set and then sat down on the couch.
At this juncture, the confidential informant left the apartment for the ostensible purpose of getting the purchase money and weighing scales so that the transaction could be completed. Meanwhile, Detective Dial asked the defendant if he could check the rest of the apartment to make sure no one else was there, a customary safety precaution carried out by narcotics buyers and sellers. The defendant did not object and the officer's inspection revealed no other occupants. While making that inspection and out of the sight of the defendant, the officer pressed a hidden beeper which, by prearrangement with other police officers outside the apartment, signaled that he had observed the commission of a felony.
At this point, the confidential informant returned to the apartment. Although the defendant had asked the confidential informant to lock the door upon his return, he did not do so. The confidential informant handed the purchase money to Detective Dial, who began to count out the correct sum for the purchase. At that moment the outside police officers, without knocking or announcing their purpose, opened the door, entered the apartment, and placed the defendant under arrest. The officers seized the cocaine as well as a loaded handgun which was located on the floor near where the defendant was sitting.
Several police officers testified at the hearing on the defendant's motion to suppress, including Detective Dial, who was invited into the apartment, and those who later entered. All these officers are highly experienced narcotics bureau officers who commonly and frequently participate in undercover drug buys and had participated in scores of arrests not dissimilar to the one involved in the case before us. The testimony of these officers revealed that in several instances one or the other of them had either been involved in shoot-outs or had had weapons pointed at them during drug arrests. This possibility was particularly alarming in those cases where an undercover police officer was inside a residence, so that the officers did not announce their purpose in order to prevent potentially dangerous and violent incidents from criminal suspects located with the inside police officer. The officers all testified, understandably, that they proceeded to make these entries and arrests with caution and with a well-founded fear for their safety. As one officer put it, "Well, in my past experience, whenever you have money and dope together, there is always the possibility of a gun being there."
In suppressing the evidence, the trial judge reasoned that the police created any exigent circumstances which may have existed. Thus, he concluded that in entering the house the arresting officers had violated Florida's "knock and announce" law, section 901.19(1), Florida Statutes (1979). He expressly relied upon the case of Hansen v. State, 372 So.2d 1003 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979).
In Hansen, two undercover police officers gained entry to the appellant's dwelling by posing as potential purchasers of marijuana. By prearranged signal from one of the undercover officers, other officers entered the residence through an unlocked door and placed the defendants under arrest. A quantity of marijuana in plain view was seized incident to the arrest. Our sister court held that under section 901.19(1) the arresting officers could only enter the premises after knocking and announcing their authority and purpose. Since they failed to do so, the arrest and the ensuing seizure were deemed illegal.
However, in State v. Schwartz, 398 So.2d 460 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981), decided subsequent to the ruling entered below, the Fourth District Court of Appeal expressly receded from Hansen. In Schwartz, the defendant invited an undercover officer and a confidential informant into the defendant's home to arrange a purchase of illegal drugs. After agreeing upon the terms of the purchase, the officer and informant went outside ostensibly to obtain some money. They left the residence door ajar. Utilizing a prearranged signal, the officer returned along with two other officers to arrest the defendant and seize the contraband. The court held that the knock and announce statute was inapplicable because the undercover officer had an implied invitation to return to the residence. The fact that he enlisted the aid of other officers did not detract from the reasonableness of the reentry. See Koptyra v. State, 172 So.2d 628 (Fla. 2d DCA 1965), in which this court reached the same conclusion on similar facts.
The recent case of State v. Steffani, 398 So.2d 475 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981), is particularly instructive. Undercover agents Houck and Guilfoyle had been invited into Steffani's home for the purpose of consummating an illegal drug sale. After agreeing upon a price, Agent Houck went outside upon the pretense of obtaining money for the purchase. When Houck returned, he was followed on a prearranged signal by back-up teams of officers with guns drawn. None of these officers knocked or announced their presence. The back-up officers arrested Steffani and confiscated the illegal contraband. In reversing the order of suppression entered below, the court said:
Since Steffani would have had no constitutional or statutory complaint had Houck or Guilfoyle initially arrested him and seized his drugs, it should make no constitutional or statutory difference to him either that these events occurred a few minutes later or that they were formally accomplished by other officers summoned solely for the salutary purpose of protecting the undercover men. In sum, we think, with the fourth district, that the consensual relinquishment of the defendant's privacy involved in inviting the undercover officers into his home extends not only to their own contemplated reentry but also to the causally and temporally closely-related actions of other officers who act at their direction and must therefore be deemed to stand in their shoes. See, Section 901.18, Florida Statutes (1979) ( ); ...
398 So.2d at 478-79 (footnotes omitted).
We find the rationale of State v. Steffani applicable to the instant case. The consensual relinquishment of the defendant's privacy involved in inviting Detective Dial into her home extended to the other officers summoned by him to assist in making an arrest for a felony committed in his presence. We do not believe that the short time interval between the return of the confidential informant and the arrival of the back-up officers vitiated the otherwise legal arrest. See also State v. Perry, 398 So.2d 959 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981), in which the court held that when a person invites undercover officers into his home to transact unlawful business, he waives his right to privacy to the extent that such an invitation converts the home into a commercial center where warrantless arrests upon probable cause are lawful.
We are cognizant of the recent United States Supreme Court decision in Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), which limits the authority of the police to make a warrantless arrest of a suspect inside his home. We find Payton inapplicable because the entry condemned in that case was without consent. In Griffin v. State, 419 So.2d 320 (Fla.1982), our supreme court distinguished Payton on the same basis when it said: 419 So.2d at 322.
Likewise, the defendant's reliance on Benefield v. State, 160 So.2d 706 (Fla.1964), is misplaced. In that case, Hollander and Rosenthal told the police that Benefield had offered to help them secure a liquor license for payment of $5,000. After obtaining some marked money, the two of them along with some city detectives went to Benefield's home. Hollander and Rosenthal entered the home for the purpose of delivering the money to Benefield. When the transaction was completed, Hollander and Rosenthal left the home. As they came out, they told the police that Benefield had the money. Thereupon, the police immediately went inside, placed...
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