MOSES ROSS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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The court held that the initial stop of the appellant was not justified because the police lacked a founded suspicion.
Police officers stopped the appellant based on a general BOLO description for an assault suspect. The appellant fit the description except for his hai…
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BOARDMAN, Judge.
Moses Ross appeals judgments and sentences for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana, contending that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the evidence. We hold that the initial stop by the police was not justified, and we therefore reverse.
At about eleven p. m. on September 12, 1981, Sarasota police officers Wall and Benton received a radio dispatch regarding an assault near a bar involving a “black male with short cropped hair, wearing a white tee shirt and wearing blue jeans” who was last seen heading north. While responding to another call, they noticed appellant walking south. Appellant fit the description given over the radio, except that his hair was plaited.
Twenty-five minutes later, after resolving a domestic altercation, the officers relocated appellant and decided to stop him. Upon discovering an outstanding charge against him, they arrested and searched him, finding a pistol and some marijuana on his person, which formed the basis of the instant charges against him.
Clearly, the officers did not have a founded suspicion to justify their stop of appellant. The BOLO description was general, and appellant’s clothing was hardly unusual or distinctive. The description could have fit many people in that area, it being a black neighborhood and an hour when many people were on the street. Moreover, appellant’s hair style and the direction in which he was walking when first spotted were inconsistent with the BOLO information. See State v. Hetland, 366 So. 2d 831 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979), aff’d, 387 So. 2d 963 (Fla.1980), Lewis v. State, 337 So. 2d 1031 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976), cert. denied, 345 So. 2d 427 (Fla.1977).
Accordingly, appellant’s judgments and sentences are REVERSED.
HOBSON, A. C. J., and DANAHY, J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By (11 total)
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Williams v. State, 454 So. 2d 737 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984)…l, black man was selling marijuana. This vague, general description may have implicated many black men and thus we can not agree with the trial court that defendant’s presence at the bar served to sufficiently corroborate the tip. See Ross v. State, 419 So. 2d 1170 (Fla.2d DCA 1982) (tip that a black male with short cropped hair, wearing a white tee shirt and blue jeans was involved in an assault could have fit many people in the black neighborhood). Had the tip been more specific, however, and had the officer…
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Bussey v. State, 528 So. 2d 955 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988)…ve a nondescript appearance and choose plain-colored, understated garb of the type worn by Bussey. Although a description might fit many individuals in a given area, this fact, alone, will not invalidate a stop. Bussey’s reliance upon Ross v. State, 419 So. 2d 1170 (Fla. 2d DCA 1982), is misplaced. In Ross, the court held that the police lacked a founded suspicion to justify their stop of Ross. The court noted with disapproval that the BOLO description was general, Ross’s clothing was not unusual or distinctiv…
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Strong v. State, 495 So. 2d 191 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986)…approached appellant because he was wearing dark-colored clothing and the other man was wearing light-colored clothing. Although appellant fit the general description of the anonymous tip, that description could have fit many men. See Ross v. State, 419 So. 2d 1170 (Fla. 2d DCA 1982) (radio dispatch describing black male with short-cropped hair wearing white tee shirt and blue jeans was general; clothing description was not unusual or distinctive; stop not justified). Cf. State v. Hetland, 366 So. 2d 831, 833…
Previewing 3 of 11 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Hetland v. State, 387 So. 2d 963 (Fla. 1980)
- State v. Hetland, 366 So. 2d 831 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979)
- Lewis v. State, 337 So. 2d 1031 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976)