County Criminal Court: CRIMINAL
LAW – Search and Seizure – Stop - Stop was proper where the defendant had been
told by the police earlier that night not to drive because he was intoxicated;
but two hours later the police received a call saying the defendant was now
attempting to drive. – Judgment and sentence affirmed. Fink v. State,
No. CRC 03-93 APANO (
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SIXTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
OF THE STATE OF
JASON ROBERT FINK
Appellant,
v. Appeal No. CRC 03-93 APANO
UCN522003AP000093XXXXCR
STATE OF
Appellee.
______________________________/
Opinion filed __________________.
Appeal from a judgment and sentence
entered by the Pinellas County Court
County Judge William Overton
J. Kevin Hayslett, Esq.
Attorney for appellant
Aaron Slavin, Esq.
Assistant State Attorney
THIS
MATTER is before the Court on the defendant, Jason Robert Fink’s, appeal from a
judgment and sentence entered by the
The defendant claims that the trial court should have granted his motion to suppress because the officer who made the stop did not witness any improper driving or have any other basis to stop him. This Court disagrees.
The police initially had contact with the defendant at approximately 2:00 A.M. on the night of the incident. The defendant was a passenger in a truck that had been stopped by the police. The driver of the truck was arrested for DUI. The police noticed that the defendant was also “clearly intoxicated.” So they called a taxi for him and ordered him not to drive the truck until he sobered up. With the permission of the employees of a 7-Eleven store, the truck was parked in their parking lot. Approximately two hours later the police received a call from one of the employees of that 7-Eleven, and that employee told the police that the defendant had come back and was driving the truck away. That information was forwarded to the officers on patrol. One of the officers who had initially had contact with the defendant earlier that night saw the truck being driven. He observed the truck being driven out of its lane, over the white solid line, and into the bicycle lane. Suspecting the driver was DUI, the officer made the traffic stop. The defendant was ultimately arrested for DUI.
In
this appeal, the defendant argues that the officer had no legal grounds to stop
him. The defendant, however, focuses exclusively on the driving witnessed by
the officer and ignores the contact the police had with him just two hours
previous to the stop. Whether or not a search and seizure is justified is to be
determined by the totality of the circumstances in light of the officer’s
knowledge and experience. See Blesky v. State, 831 So.2d 803 (
It was reasonable for the officer to suspect that the defendant had not yet sobered up, had defied his specific instruction, and was DUI. Although defense counsel attempts to make much of the fact that the officer did not specifically identify the driver of the truck as the same man who the officer had contact with two hours earlier before he made the stop, the officer was entitled to rely on the 7-Eleven employee’s statement that it was the same person. Moreover, given the observation of the somewhat suspect driving and the overall circumstances of the situation, the officer would have been justified in making an investigatory stop to determine if in fact the driver of the truck was the same person that he had contact with earlier that night. The stop was proper. It was, therefore,
appropriate for the trial court to deny the defendant’s motion to suppress.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the judgment and sentence are affirmed.
DONE
AND ORDERED in Chambers at
__________________________
James R. Case
Circuit Judge
__________________________
Nancy Moate Ley
Circuit Judge
___________________________
John A. Schaefer
Circuit Judge
cc: State Attorney
J. Kevin Hayslett, Esq.
Judge Overton