State v. M.J., 95-02033
| Decision Date | 26 June 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-02033,95-02033 |
| Citation | 685 So.2d 1350 |
| Parties | 21 Fla. L. Weekly D1517 STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. M.J., a child, Appellee. Second District |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Patricia E. Davenport, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellant.
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, Bartow, and Megan Olson, Assistant Public Defender, Clearwater, for Appellee.
The state appeals from the trial court's order granting M.J.'s motion to suppress. The motion was grounded upon a contention that M.J.'s consent to a search was neither voluntary nor based upon probable cause. We reverse.
In unrefuted testimony, Officer Spearden D. Lefkimiotis of the St. Petersburg Police Department described the events that occurred at 1:00 a.m. on January 18, 1995, at an apartment building known for drug trade. Because the building was clearly posted with "No Trespassing" and "No Loitering" signs, the officer's attention was drawn to a group of three men and one woman standing by the stairwell. As Lefkimiotis, who was in uniform and who was driving a marked patrol car, pulled up to the group, M.J. started to walk away. Lefkimiotis then asked M.J. if he would mind speaking with him, so M.J. turned around and walked back toward the officer. When questioned whether he lived at the apartment building, M.J. responded that he was just "hanging out, you know, chilling." Because of the well-known reputation of the area for drug sales, the officer asked M.J. if he "had anything illegal on him," to which M.J. immediately replied, "No, sir, you can go ahead and check me if you want to."
Lefkimiotis advised M.J. that he would be charged if anything illicit were found, and M.J. indicated that he understood. Lefkimiotis then patted M.J.'s pockets, discovering an object that felt like a crack pipe. The officer then walked with M.J. over to the cruiser and again warned him that he would be charged if he found contraband. After M.J.'s second acknowledgment that he understood the consequences of the search, the officer reached into M.J.'s pocket and pulled out a small glass pipe used for smoking crack cocaine. Following Miranda warnings, M.J. agreed to talk to the officer and stated that his mother had died of a heart attack about a year previously, and he began smoking crack from depression over his mother's death.
The initial encounter between the defendant and the officer was wholly consensual. The officer used no words or force that would have conveyed to a...
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Conyers v. State
...has previously held that the plain feel of a crack pipe during a lawful patdown can provide probable cause to arrest. State v. M.J., 685 So.2d 1350 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996) ; see also Cole v. State, 727 So.2d 280, 281 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999) (concluding that officer did not have probable cause to seiz......
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D.G. v. State, 97-2882
...come over to him, using words of compulsion. See Clayton v. State, 616 So.2d 615, 616-17 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993); see also State v. M.J., 685 So.2d 1350 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996). Appellant having been detained without a founded suspicion prior to the officer uncovering evidence of a crime, the motion......