STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
CURTIS D. MILLER, APPELLEE
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The State appeals a trial court's suppression of cocaine found during a vehicle search, arguing the search was valid despite being partly motivated by pretext. The court reverses, holding that a vehicle stop is valid if a reasonable officer would have made the stop absent an improper motive, and the subsequent search incident to arrest for suspended license was properly conducted.
The court reversed the suppression order, holding that under Kehoe v. State, a traffic stop is valid if a reasonable officer would have made the stop absent an additional invalid purpose. Because the stop was initially justified by a traffic violation and Deputy Graham obtained probable cause to arrest during the lawful stop, the subsequent search incident to arrest was proper.
[1] A traffic stop is permissible if a reasonable officer would have stopped the vehicle absent an additional invalid purpose.
[2] Information obtained during a lawful traffic stop that provides probable cause for an arrest justifies a search incident to that arrest.
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“Under Kehoe, the stop is proper if a reasonable officer would have stopped the vehicle absent an additional invalid purpose.”
Establishes the legal standard for validating a traffic stop despite alleged pretext motivation.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceMiller was driving at night with an inoperable tag light and was stopped by Lee County Sheriff's Deputies Graham and Nestler. While Deputy Nestler wro…
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CAMPBELL, Judge.
The State of Florida appeals the trial court's order of suppression of evidence on the grounds that it was based solely upon the conclusion that the police officers’ stop of appellee’s vehicle was “partly motivated by pretext.” We reverse.
Appellee Miller was driving his vehicle at night with an inoperable tag light. He was stopped by Lee County Sheriffs Deputies Graham and Nestler. As Deputy Nestler was writing a citation to appellee for the inoperable tag light, he was advised by radio dispatch that appel-lee’s driver’s license was suspended. Deputy Graham had, during the time Deputy Nestler was writing the citation for no tag light, checked around the driver’s seat of appellee’s vehicle for weapons and found none. As Deputy Graham was leaving appellee’s car, he heard on his portable radio carried on his belt the radio dispatch concerning appellee’s driver’s license. Deputy Graham testified he advised Deputy Nest-ler, a special deputy, to place appellee under arrest for the suspended driver's license violation and then turned back to search appellee’s vehicle incident to the arrest he had just directed. While Deputy Nestler testified he did not hear Deputy Graham’s direction to arrest appellee, we conclude that is not critical to Deputy Graham’s right to search the vehicle incident to the arrest he had ordered and believed would be effected. During this subsequent search incident to the arrest he had directed, Deputy Graham discovered three small baggies of cocaine.
We find that this case falls within the permissible standards for a valid traffic stop of a vehicle announced in Kehoe v. State, 521 So. 2d 1094 (Fla.1988). Under Kehoe, the stop is proper if a reasonable officer would have stopped the vehicle absent an additional invalid purpose. Id. at 1097. Here, after the stop was made because of a traffic violation (section 316.-221(2), Florida Statutes (1987)), and during the time a citation was being written for that violation, Deputy Graham received information which gave him probable cause to arrest appellee and to conduct a search incident to that arrest. See Moreland v. State, 552 So. 2d 937 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989), rev. denied, 562 So. 2d 346 (Fla.1990); State v. Fernandez, 526 So. 2d 192 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988).
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent herewith.
SCHEB, A.C.J., and ALTENBERND, J., concur.
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Cole v. State, 838 So. 2d 1205 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003)…to trafficking in amphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and driving with a suspended license, reserving his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress evidence. We affirm the denial of the motion to suppress. See State v. Miller, 565 So. 2d 886 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990) (upholding traffic stop based on driving at night with an inoperable tag light); § 316.221(2), Fla. Stat. (1999). Cole also challenges the sentence imposed for trafficking in amphetamine. The State agrees that remand for resen-t…
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State v. Bentley, 596 So. 2d 773 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992)…ehend traffic law violators. He testified that he could not observe a tag on the vehicle and that he always made traffic stops under these circumstances. The stop was therefore proper. See Kehoe v. State, 521 So. 2d 1094 (Fla.1988); State v. Miller, 565 So. 2d 886 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990). The trial court’s second conclusion is likewise erroneous in the context of the events as they evolved. Pryor stopped the car, Pryor and Bagsby exited their cars and approached each other, Pryor saw a temporary tag in the rear w…
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State v. Pugh, 635 So. 2d 999 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994)…a suspended license). See also Batie v. State, 593 So. 2d 1167 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992) (denial of motion to suppress evidence proper where search conducted as incident to defendant’s arrest for possession of suspended driver’s license); State v. Miller, 565 So. 2d 886 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990) (deputy had probable cause to arrest defendant and to search incident to that arrest where deputy discovered that defendant’s license had been suspended after proper stop for traffic infraction). The fact that Mr. Pugh drove away…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Kehoe v. State, 521 So. 2d 1094 (Fla. 1988)
- State v. Fernandez, 526 So. 2d 192 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988)
- Moreland v. State, 552 So. 2d 937 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989)