State v. Hafer, 4D99-4157.
| Decision Date | 13 December 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 4D99-4157.,4D99-4157. |
| Parties | STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Harry H. HAFER, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Sarah B. Mayer and Georgina Jimenez-Orosa, Assistant Attorneys General, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Stewart Valencia and Jeffrey E. Holman of Jeffrey E. Holman & Associates, P.A., Hollywood, for appellee.
The State (Appellant) appeals the trial court's ruling granting the motion of Defendant (Appellee) to suppress physical evidence and testimony in connection with the prosecution of Appellee for various sex crimes. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.
On the evening of January 8, 1999, a Hallandale police officer was on routine patrol in his car when a Latin female approached and advised him that a white man in a dark-colored car had been following her. The woman allegedly told him at this time that a man in his mid to late twenties, driving a black sports car, had asked her if she wanted a ride. She declined. The young man later approached her in his car again, but this time he was naked. According to the woman, he offered her $2,000 to watch him masturbate. She reported the car had been traveling east on Hallandale Boulevard but had turned south. The officer told the woman to keep walking east along Hallandale Boulevard and that he would drive ahead of her and wait. He told her to signal him if she saw the man approach again. Within two minutes, the officer saw Appellee, a 66-year old man, in a blue, 1989 Chrysler coupe turn east onto Hallandale Boulevard from N.W. 2nd Avenue. Appellee drove his car slowly past the girl without stopping and passed the officer's car. The woman did not signal the officer. The officer followed driving his car behind Appellee and then pulled into a Firestone tire store parking lot at the corner of Hallandale Boulevard and Dixie Highway. He did not stop Appellee's vehicle. The officer parked his car and approached the passenger side of Appellee's vehicle while it was stopped on Hallandale Boulevard at a red light. The passenger side window was down on Appellee's car and the officer could see inside.
The officer testified at the suppression hearing that he observed a clear, plastic cup, about 6/8 full, containing an amber-colored liquid in the car's cupholder. He asked Appellee about it and he allegedly told the officer it was beer. The officer also testified he observed an open photo album on the passenger seat containing photographs of under-aged, nude women. According to Appellee, the officer did not ask him about the contents of the cup and that he never admitted to having an open beer in his car. He also denied the photo album was on the passenger seat, claimed both front windows of the car were rolled down because the air-conditioning in his vehicle didn't work and testified the officer walked up to his vehicle and ordered him to pull into the parking lot.
The open photo album on the passenger seat contained photographs of nude, under-aged women. At the time of his detention, Appellee consented to a search of his vehicle and 65 photographs of nude women, many engaged in sexual conduct, were found in the trunk of his car. The officer recognized one of the women as a student or previous student at Hallandale High School. The photo album and photographs were confiscated. Two of the subjects in these pictures were subsequently identified as students at Hallandale High School. One student was seventeen and the other student had recently turned eighteen. The police interviewed both of the female students a short time after the photographs were confiscated.
The female students told the police that the photographs had been taken two years earlier in the fall of 1997 at a home in Miramar. The students were juveniles at that time. There were three...
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