State v. Stephens, 97-00569

• Decision Date: 09 January 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-00569,97-00569
• Citation: 707 So.2d 758
• Parties: STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. James E. STEPHENS, Jr., Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 758

707 So.2d 758

STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. James E. STEPHENS, Jr., Appellee.

No. 97-00569.

District Court of Appeal of Florida Second District.

Jan. 9, 1998.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 17, 1998.

Bernie McCabe, State Attorney and Kimberly D. Nolan, Assistant State Attorney, Clearwater, for Appellant.

Joseph M. Diaz, Tampa and N. Christian Brown, Clearwater, for Appellee.

FRANK, Judge.

James Stephens was charged with one count of battery of a law enforcement officer, one count of resisting an officer with violence, one count of possession of cocaine, and one count of unauthorized possession of a driver's license or identification card. The battery and resisting charges were severed and tried by a jury. Stephens was convicted as charged on the battery and was convicted of the lesser offense of resisting an officer without violence. He then changed his plea to guilty on the cocaine possession and driver's license offenses and was sentenced on all charges.

Stephens filed a motion pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 requesting a new trial and/or vacation of judgment and sentence and withdrawal of his plea. The court held an evidentiary hearing, following which it granted the motion to vacate judgment and sentence and ordered a new trial. The State now appeals from that decision, and we reverse on the ground that even if Stephens' counsel was ineffective in failing to clarify certain of the evidence, his attorney's allegedly deficient performance did not prejudice the defendant to the extent that he was deprived of a fair trial.

Stephens' charges arose after the police stopped a car in which Stephens was a passenger. For reasons of officer safety, one of the policemen asked Stephens to exit the car. Stephens began to flail his arms and yell obscenities, refusing to leave the vehicle. As an officer reached over to unbuckle Stephens' seat belt and pull him out of the car, Stephens punched the officer. This precipitated his arrest for battery of a law enforcement officer. Stephens allegedly struggled violently and continued to yell obscenities and eventually required hobble restraints to prevent injury to the officers or to himself.

After this altercation, Stephens complained only of scrapes on his nose and elbow. He stated that an unobserved bruise on his leg and the cut on his arm were old injuries. Nevertheless, he was taken to the hospital as standard police procedure. The officers testified that they used the least amount of force necessary to arrest the defendant; no one struck, punched, or kicked Stephens at any time. The third passenger also testified that he did not see the officers beat Stephens.

The primary thrust of Stephens' defense was that he was the victim of police brutality and that...