State v. Edwards
| Decision Date | 27 December 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. 2618,2618 |
| Citation | 135 So.2d 889 |
| Parties | STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Harold EDWARDS, Respondent. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., Robert R. Crittenden, Asst. Atty. Gen., Paul B. Johnson, State's Atty., and John R. Lawson, Jr., Asst. State's Atty., Tampa, for petitioner.
Pat Whitaker, Jr., Tampa, for respondent.
Petitioner, the State of Florida, through certiorari seeks to have this court review and quash an order of the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County. The assaulted order is one through which the court denied petition for rehearing subsequent to its reversal of defendant's judgment of conviction of a misdemeanor in the Criminal Court of Record of that county. The trial was by jury, and the reversal was by the circuit court sitting as a court of final appellate jurisdiction.
The misdemeanor charged was illegal possession of deer, the carcasses of which were discovered in the trunk of defendant's car by police officers who had halted him and advised him that he was guilty of careless driving in violation of a municipal ordinance of the City of Tampa. Defendant had opened the trunk of his car after one of the officers, noting a brown spot on the rear bumper, ordered him to do so.
In the trial court, a motion to suppress the evidence, timely interposed by defendant, was denied. Defendant was convicted and sentenced, and the appeal ensued. The circuit court on review stated that the lawfulness of the search depended upon whether or not it was incident to a lawful arrest and whether the officers had complied with the reasonable requirements for making an effective and lawful arrest. After discussing the evidence, the court then determined that the trial judge had erred in denying the motion to suppress, since '* * * there existed no probable cause for the stopping of appellant's automobile.'
The state filed petition for rehearing, contending that the defendant had entered a plea of guilty in the municipal court to the charge of careless driving and that this precluded him from questioning the propriety of the arrest. A form titled 'Appearance, Plea of Guilty and Waiver,' utilized by the City of Tampa, had been signed by defendant as to the careless driving charge. The appellate court ruled that this was an out-of-court matter handled by city police officers and that the form, which defendant had signed a substantial time after the search of his automobile and his arrest, was for use only by the administrative officers of the Municipal Court of the City of Tampa. Again, it was found that the evidence before the court was inadequate to permit the introduction of the evidence sought to be suppressed.
No jurisdictional question is involved. The effect of the petitioner's position is that the circuit court, as the appellate court, departed from the essential requirements of law. The burden of demonstrating this is upon the petitioner. Collier v. City of Homestead, Fla.1955, 81 So.2d 201. It is apparent, from the orders of reversal and...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Gonzales v. Stanke-Brown & Associates, Inc.
...denial "cannot be used as precedent or authority for or against the propositions raised by either of the proceedings." State v. Edwards, 135 So.2d 889, 890-891 (Fla.1961). Neither is it tantamount to an affirmance of the Appellate Division on the merits, West Point Island Civic Ass'n v. Tow......
-
Shaps v. Provident Life & Acc. Ins. Co.
...Homestead, 81 So.2d 201 (Fla.1955)); see also Carol City Utils., Inc. v. Dade County, 183 So.2d 227 (Fla. 3d DCA 1966); State v. Edwards, 135 So.2d 889 (Fla. 2d DCA 1961). In other words, a "denial of certiorari is not to be construed as an opinion on the merits of the petition." Johnson v.......
-
Bared & Co., Inc. v. McGuire
...of certiorari did not bar further litigation of the controversy involved in the petition for writ of certiorari, and State v. Edwards, 135 So.2d 889 (Fla. 2d DCA 1961) where this court cautioned that its denial of certiorari 'cannot be interpreted as a determination of the issues presented ......
-
Don Mott Agency, Inc. v. Harrison, 77-1531
...of certiorari did not bar further litigation of the controversy involved in the petition for writ of certiorari, and State v. Edwards, 135 So.2d 889 (Fla. 2d DCA 1961) where this court cautioned that its denial of certiorari "cannot be interpreted as a determination of the issues presented ......