Williams v. State

• Decision Date: 22 September 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-2279,87-2279
• Parties: 13 Fla. L. Weekly 2199 Gary WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 246

531 So.2d 246

13 Fla. L. Weekly 2199

Gary WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 87-2279.

District Court of Appeal of Florida Fifth District.

Sept. 22, 1988.

James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Brynn Newton, Asst. Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Belle B. Turner, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

COWART, Judge.

Orlando police officers were approached by a person unknown to them who advised the police officers that he was a police confidential informant. The informant gave a number which was consistent with a number assigned to confidential informants by the Orlando Police Department when the confidential informant has proved his reliability to the satisfaction of the police department. The informant then advised the officers that a man whom he described by height, weight, and clothing tried to sell him drugs at the corner of Church and Parramore Streets in Orlando. The officers went there, which was known to them to be a "drug activity area", and saw a man (the defendant, Gary Williams) who fit the description given them. The officers themselves observed nothing giving them probable cause to believe, or to even reasonably suspect, that the defendant was violating any law. The officers approached or accosted the defendant and "for safety" made a pat-down search. The "pat-down" revealed a soft bulge in the defendant's front shorts pocket which was not believed, or suspected, to be a weapon. Nevertheless, the police searched the pocket, which search revealed the bulge to consist of a wad of money and two-tenths of a gram of cocaine. The defendant was arrested and charged. At a hearing on a motion to suppress, the defendant's counsel, citing State v. Hewitt, 495 So.2d 809 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986), rev. denied, 504 So.2d 768 (Fla.1987), ¹ argued that (1) while the information given to police officers by the so-called "registered confidential informant" might be sufficient for a stop and frisk under section 901.151, Florida Statutes, such "pat-down" or "frisk" resulted in no factual basis for a belief that the defendant was armed justifying a search of his pocket, (2) the police officers had no personal knowledge of the informant's reliability as might have been relied upon by an impartial magistrate as probable cause in order to issue a search warrant, and (3) such information was insufficient in detail and source as to alone constitute probable cause to believe that the defendant had committed a felony crime as to justify an arrest without a warrant. The trial court denied the motion to suppress on the ground that the officers had probable cause to arrest based solely on the...