State v. Flowers, 90-00454

Decision Date24 August 1990
Docket NumberNo. 90-00454,90-00454
Citation566 So.2d 50
Parties15 Fla. L. Weekly D2137 STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Sandra Denise FLOWERS, Appellee.
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Brenda S. Taylor, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellant.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Andrea Norgard, Asst. Public Defender, Bartow, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal from the trial court's order suppressing cocaine taken from Sandra Flowers by the police as well as suppressing statements she made. The issue is whether a tip received by the police from a known and reliable confidential informant [hereinafter C.I.] provided sufficient probable cause to arrest and search the appellee. The trial court held that it did not. We disagree and reverse.

Detective Bruno of the Lakeland Police Department received a telephone call from a C.I. who was known to the detective to be reliable and with whom he had worked since 1985. In the past, this C.I.'s information had led to numerous arrests and convictions. The C.I. told Detective Bruno that the C.I. had just observed a woman named Sandra inside a parked green Oldsmobile Cutlass and that she was in possession of cocaine. The C.I. gave the address where the car could be found, the tag number of the car and where on the woman's body the cocaine could be found. The detective and another officer went immediately to the address given by the C.I. where they saw the appellee in the situation described by the C.I. They took her into custody and a search of her person done at the police station by female officers resulted in finding a cocaine rock where the C.I. had said it would be. Based on this find, the appellee was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to sell or deliver.

In the pretrial proceedings, the appellee moved to suppress the cocaine and the statements she made at the time of her arrest. After hearing the circumstances of the arrest as we have outlined them above, the trial court granted the motion to suppress. We reverse.

In situations where the police rely upon known and reliable informants to aid them in detecting crime, as long as the information is sufficiently detailed and the police can verify the details except for the final one of the commission of the crime, the detention and search based upon this information will be upheld because probable cause will have been furnished. State v. Brown, 556 So.2d 790 (Fla. 2d DCA...

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12 cases
  • Rogers v. State
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • August 14, 1991
    ...539 So.2d 492 (Fla.2d DCA 1989). See also, United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 102 S.Ct. 2157, 72 L.Ed.2d 572 (1982); State v. Flowers, 566 So.2d 50 (Fla.2d DCA 1990); Edwards v. State, 547 So.2d 183 (Fla.2d DCA 1989). Here, the police had independently corroborated most of the specific de......
  • State v. Butler
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • June 1, 1995
    ...ANSTEAD, Justice. We have for review Butler v. State, 634 So.2d 700 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994), which certified conflict with State v. Flowers, 566 So.2d 50 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990), and State v. Brown, 556 So.2d 790 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, Sec. 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. We quash th......
  • Butler v. State, 92-3090
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • March 15, 1994
    ...independent police corroboration of the reliable CI's tip other than through "innocent" or self-verifying details. In State v. Flowers, 566 So.2d 50 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990), the court found adequate probable cause for a search and arrest where a reliable CI told police he had just observed a wom......
  • State v. Clark
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • February 22, 2008
    ...pickup truck because they had verified all of the details "except for the final one of the commission of the crime." State v. Flowers, 566 So.2d 50, 51 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990); see also Butler, 655 So.2d at 1129-31 (approving Flowers, 566 So.2d at 51, and State v. Brown, 556 So.2d 790 (Fla. 2d D......
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