Walker v. State, 2D01-1410.
| Decision Date | 30 May 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 2D01-1410.,2D01-1410. |
| Citation | 846 So.2d 643 |
| Parties | Terry WALKER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and William L. Sharwell, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Danilo Cruz-Carino, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
Terry Walker appeals the denial of a dispositive motion to suppress the physical evidence obtained as a result of an allegedly illegal search. We reverse.
At the hearing on the motion to suppress, a Tampa Police Department officer testified that while patrolling a Tampa Housing Authority area described as a high drug area, he observed what he characterized as a "hand-to-hand transaction" between Walker and a man only identified as Mr. Butler. More specifically, the officer stated that the two men were "real close up tight with each other" and the men were looking down into Walker's hand. The officer stated that both men had their backs turned to him, then indicated that only Walker had his back turned to the officer. He stated, "I could see what they were doing."
On cross-examination the officer admitted that when he saw Walker and Mr. Butler he could not actually see what it was that the two men were observing in Walker's hand. The officer testified, "[A]s I pulled up on the side I could see they were both looking down in his hand." The officer, however, candidly acknowledged that he could not see the object, and he did not see any money exchange hands.
When the officer approached the two men, other people who were standing in the area scattered. The officer asked the two men to come to him, and he "detained both of them." He then asked Walker alone to approach him and requested permission to perform a patdown. Permission was given, and the officer felt "little square objects" in Walker's front pants' pocket which he believed to be crack cocaine. The officer asked Walker for permission to retrieve the items, consent was given, and cocaine was recovered.
The meeting between Walker and the police officer was more than a mere police-citizen encounter. When the officer detained the two men, singled out Walker, and requested that he come to him, the meeting was transformed into an investigative stop. In such a situation, a police officer may temporarily detain a person if the officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. See Coney v. State, 820 So.2d 1012, 1013-14 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002)
. Whether an officer has a founded suspicion for a stop depends upon the totality of the circumstances in light of the officer's knowledge and experience. Belsky v. State, 831 So.2d 803, 804 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002). A bare suspicion or mere "hunch" that criminal activity may be occurring is not sufficient. Id.
As this court noted in Burnette v. State, 658 So.2d 1170 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995), it is not absolutely necessary for an officer to observe drugs or money changing hands in order to develop the founded suspicion necessary to temporarily detain a citizen to investigate whether a drug offense has been committed. See also Ford v. State, 783 So.2d 284, 286 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001)
. Other factors considered by the Burnette court included the officer's narcotics experience, the reputation of the location for drug transactions, that there had been an extended period of surveillance, and the history of previous multiple arrests from that site. In Burnette, although the police officer had not actually seen drugs or...
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