MICHAEL ANDREW JOHNSON, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1989-04-05
No. 88-0188
HERSEY, C.J., and DOWNEY, J., concur., ANSTEAD, J., concurs specially with opinion.
540 So. 2d 932 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1989) Caution
Cited by 4 cases


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

AFFIRMED.

HERSEY, C.J., and DOWNEY, J., concur. ANSTEAD, J., concurs specially with opinion.

Concurrence
ANSTEAD, Judge,

ANSTEAD, Judge,

concurring specially.

I concur in the majority’s conclusion that the trial court did not err in denying appellant’s motion to suppress. However, I must acknowledge that the suppression issue was a close call, and one that in my final analysis I believe the trial judge was entitled to make based on the evidence before him.

This is a drug case. The appellant was arrested after the police observed him during a daylight transaction in an area identified by the police as having high drug sales activity. The area was described as one of predominately black residents. The appellant is white and the other person in the transaction was black. The police testified at the suppression hearing that they observed the appellant give money to the other person in exchange for something they could not identify. They believed that something was drugs, based upon their previous experience in the area. After the appellant returned to his car and drove away, he was stopped by the police and cocaine rock was observed on the floor of his car. I believe the circumstances described above, based upon the officers’ actual experience with drug transactions in the area, gave them the founded suspicion necessary to stop the appellant. Cf. Ewen v. State, 518 So. 2d 1285 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987). Hence, I agree that there was sufficient evidence upon which the trial court could find that the stop was proper and that the cocaine rock was in plain view and properly seized.


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Citator

Cited By

  • In the Interest of J.H., 580 So. 2d 162 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991)
    …o. 2d 830 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); a tip from a reliable informant, State v. Maya, 529 So. 2d 1282 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988); or a plain view of the contraband after the initial reasonable suspicion stop in an area known for drug transactions. Johnson v. State, 540 So. 2d 932 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989).…
  • Johnson v. State, 565 So. 2d 413 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990)
    …o. 2d 830 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); a tip from a reliable informant, State v. Maya, 529 So. 2d 1282 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988); or a plain view of the contraband after the initial reasonable suspicion stop in an area known for drug transactions. Johnson v. State, 540 So. 2d 932 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989). The defendant’s pretrial motion to suppress should have been granted as there was no probable cause for an arrest prior to the search which led to the discovery of the contraband. See Piediscalzo v. State, 549 So. 2d 255 (Fla.…

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