STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
JANET WILLIAMS, APPELLEE
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Florida appeals a trial court's suppression of evidence seized from the defendant Williams and two other individuals. The appellate court reversed, holding that Williams lacked standing to challenge the search of the other individuals' persons, and that the subsequent search of Williams's purse was valid as a search incident to a lawful arrest.
Williams lacked standing to challenge the searches of the other individuals because they were not her persons and no Fourth Amendment violation of her own rights occurred. The search of Williams's purse was valid as a search incident to lawful arrest, as the officers had probable cause to arrest her based on observing her hand items to the girls that appeared to be narcotics.
[1] A defendant lacks standing to challenge a search of a third party's person or property, even if the defendant is aggrieved by the introduction of damaging evidence derive…
[2] A search of a defendant's purse incident to a lawful arrest is valid.
Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“suppression of the product of a Fourth Amendment violation can be successfully urged only by those whose rights were violated by the search itself, not by those who are aggrieved solely by the introduction of damaging evidence.”
Establishes the core principle that standing to challenge searches is limited to those whose own Fourth Amendment rights were violated
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligencePolice officers observed Williams handing items to two teenage girls in a parking lot at a rock concert venue. The officers could not clearly see what…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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PER CURIAM.
The state appeals the trial court's granting of a motion to suppress evidence seized from appellee’s purse and from the persons of two other individuals. The issue of the correctness of the search of persons other than the appellee is not appropriately addressed here, as those persons were not parties to the proceeding below, or here, and therefore there is no party before the court with standing to complain. Granting the appellee standing to complain, based upon the violation of rights of third persons, was error. Therefore, we reverse and remand.
The findings of fact as stated by the trial court in its order granting appellee’s motion to suppress are as follows:
The facts of the case are simple and undisputed. The policemen involved are both very competent officers and candid witnesses. The two officers circled the parking lot of the Lakeland Civic Center 15 minutes after the scheduled beginning of a rock concert. They observed a woman and two girls in their late teens at the rear of a vehicle while other adults were exiting the vehicle. The woman handed each of the girls something. The officers could not see what the items were but said they were not large enough to be a ticket or stick of chewing gum. Suspecting the items to be narcotics, the officers hurried to the group. As they did, one of the girls placed something in her mouth. The officers retrieved the items from the hand of one girl and the mouth of the other. As the items appeared to be quaa-ludes, the officers arrested the woman for delivery of the contraband. She wished to take her purse with her to the jail. The officers, therefore, inspected her purse and found additional illegal drugs.
Under these facts as found by the trial court, the appellee had no standing to complain of the search conducted upon the persons of the other two individuals. United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980); Bakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387, reh’g denied 439 U.S. 1122, 99 S.Ct. 1035, 59 L.Ed.2d 83 (1978). The officers did not violate the appellee’s fourth amendment rights. Therefore, appellee has no standing to complain that the officers violated the fourth amendment rights of third parties. State v. Ferguson, 411 So. 2d 963 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982). “ ‘ * * * suppression of the product of a Fourth Amendment violation can be successfully urged only by those whose rights were violated by the search itself, not by those who are aggrieved solely by the introduction of damaging evidence. Coconspirators and codefendants have been accorded no special standing.’” Brown v. State, 245 So. 2d 68, 74 (Fla.1971), quoting with approval from Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 171-72, 89 S.Ct. 961, 965, 22 L.Ed.2d 176, reh’g denied 394 U.S. 939, 89 S.Ct. 1177, 22 L.Ed.2d 475 (1969).
Once the officers had seized what appeared to be “quaaludes” from the two girls after having observed the appellee give the items to the girls, they then had probable cause to arrest the appellee. The subsequent search of appellee’s purse incident to that arrest was, therefore, valid.
Accordingly, the order appealed from is REVERSED and the cause is REMANDED to the trial court for further proceedings.
HOBSON, A.C.J., and GRIMES and CAMPBELL, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128 (U.S. 1978)
- Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165 (U.S. 1969)
- United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83 (U.S. 1980)
- Brown v. State, 245 So. 2d 68 (Fla. 1971)
- Jacobs v. Alabama, 439 U.S. 1122 (U.S. 1979)
- Hutto v. Finney, 439 U.S. 1122 (U.S. 1979)
- Glass v. United States, 394 U.S. 939 (U.S. 1969)
- Pyles v. United States, 394 U.S. 939 (U.S. 1969)
- State v. Ferguson, 411 So. 2d 963 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982)