STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
RICHARD CAMINITI, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1993-02-03
No. 92-1854
LETTS and POLEN, JJ„ and ALDERMAN, JAMES E., Senior Justice, concur.
613 So. 2d 141 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1993) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

The State appeals a trial court's dismissal of charges against Caminiti for purchasing cocaine within 1000 feet of a school, based on the court's finding that police repackaging of previously seized cocaine constituted illegal "manufacturing." The Fourth District reversed, holding that repackaging cocaine rocks for use in a reverse sting operation did not constitute manufacturing under the statutory definition or violate due process when the substance underwent no chemical transformation.


Holding

The repackaging of cocaine for a reverse sting operation does not constitute manufacturing in violation of due process. While the statutory definition of manufacture includes packaging, not every statutory violation results in a deprivation of due process rights. The police conduct here—merely placing rocks into smaller packages and marking them for identification—was minimal and necessary for reverse stings to be feasible, and the substance underwent no transformation.


Headnotes

[1] Repackaging previously seized controlled substances for use in a reverse sting operation does not constitute "manufacturing" under Florida Statutes section 893.02(13)(a)…

[2] Police conduct in repackaging controlled substances for a reverse sting operation, without chemical transformation, does not rise to the level of a due process violation.

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Key Quotes

“Manufacture" means the production, preparation, propagation, compounding, cultivating, growing, conversion, or processing of a controlled substance, either directly or indirectly, by extraction from substances of natural origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis, and includes any packaging of the substance or labeling or relabeling of its container”

The statutory definition of manufacture that includes packaging, which formed the basis of the trial court's dismissal

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Facts & Procedural History

Police conducted a reverse sting operation using cocaine rocks that had been previously seized in unrelated cases. The police repackaged these rocks i…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Richard Caminiti was arrested in a reverse sting operation and charged with purchase of cocaine within 1000 feet of a school in violation of section 893.13(l)(e), Florida Statutes (1991). Caminiti moved to dismiss on the basis that it was improper for the police to use cocaine rocks which had been previously seized in unrelated cases and repackaged for use in the reverse sting. The issue addressed at the hearing on this motion was whether the police conduct in repackaging the cocaine fell within the definition of “manufacturing.” Section 893.02(13)(a) provides:

“Manufacture” means the production, preparation, propagation, compounding, cultivating, growing, conversion, or processing of a controlled substance, either directly or indirectly, by extraction from substances of natural origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis, and includes any packaging of the substance or labeling or relabeling of its container ...

The trial court reluctantly granted the motion to dismiss based upon Kelly v. State, 593 So. 2d 1060 (Fla. 4th DCA), review denied, 599 So. 2d 1280 (Fla.1992), and the statutory definition of “manufacture”, which includes packaging or relabeling. The State of Florida appeals the dismissal of the information. We reverse.

Kelly is distinguishable. There, the trial court denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss charges of purchasing cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school.

On appeal this court reversed and ruled that the use of reconstituted crack which was manufactured by the police in a sting operation infringed on the defendant’s right to due process of law, citing State v. Glosson, 462 So. 2d 1082 (Fla.1985).

We concluded that the definí tion of “manufacture” contained in section 893.02(12)(a), Florida Statutes (1989) (the predecessor statute to the one at bar) included conversion of a controlled substance into crack and that the police misconduct rose to the level of a violation of the constitutional principles of due process. In the instant ease the police conduct did not rise to the level of a violation of due process. In Kelly the police “manufactured” the crack in the classic sense of the word. Their actions resulted in the release into the community of a new and different controlled substance than that which they had originally seized. In the present case the substance underwent no transformation and was in the identical chemical form in which it had been originally seized. The only police conduct involved was their act of placing the rocks into smaller packages and marking them for identification. Without the ability to perform this minimal activity, reverse stings would be virtually impossible. Such a ruling would be inconsistent with current statutory provisions which allow police officers acting in the course of their duties to possess and deliver a controlled substance.1 We note that not every violation of statute results in the deprivation of a defendant’s due process rights. See e.g., State v. Glosson, 462 So. 2d 1082 (Fla.1985).

Accordingly, we reverse the dismissal of the information against the defendant.

REVERSED and REMANDED for further consistent proceedings.

LETTS and POLEN, JJ„ and ALDERMAN, JAMES E., Senior Justice, concur. . See section 893.13(5), Fla.Stat. (1991). See also, State v. Burch, 545 So. 2d 279 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989), aff'd, Burch v. State, 558 So. 2d 1 (Fla.1990).


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Citator

Cited By

  • Lamount Hamon v. State, 744 So. 2d 1065 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999)
    …acting in a criminal investigation. As such, the sale of the counterfeit cocaine by police was illegal under this section. Still, not every violation of a statute results in the deprivation of a defendant’s due process rights. See State v. Caminiti, 613 So. 2d 141, 142 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993). Rather, this court must employ a balancing test on a case-by-case approach to determine whether the police conduct involved is “so outrageous as to shock the Court’s sense of fairness.” United States v. Bounos, 730 F. 2d 46…

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