WILLIAM BELES, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1995-02-22
No. 94-2406
Before NESBITT, COPE and GERSTEN, JJ.
650 So. 2d 1092 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1995)

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Synopsis

William Beles was convicted of cocaine possession and resisting an officer, but the Florida District Court of Appeal reversed because the officer lacked authority to conduct a full custodial arrest and search incident thereto for violation of a Metro Dade ordinance that did not authorize imprisonment.


Holding

An officer may not conduct a full custodial arrest or a full custodial search incident to arrest for violation of an ordinance that does not provide for jail time, because such an ordinance does not authorize a full custodial arrest. The trial court should have granted the motion to suppress.


Headnotes

[1] An arrest for violation of an ordinance that does not provide for imprisonment is illegal.

[2] A full custodial search incident to an illegal arrest is not authorized.

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Key Quotes

“This ordinance did not provide for jail time and therefore it did not provide for a full custodial arrest. Consequently, the officer had no authority to conduct a full custodial search of Beles incident to the "arrest."”

Establishes the core holding that an ordinance without imprisonment provisions cannot support a full custodial arrest or incident search.

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Facts & Procedural History

Beles was arrested for violation of Metro Dade Ordinance 21-31.2 and cocaine possession. The ordinance at issue did not provide for jail time as a pen…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

William Beles appeals his conviction and sentence for possession of cocaine and resisting an officer without violence. Beles was arrested for violation of Metro Dade Ordinance 21-31.2, and cocaine possession. Beles unsuccessfully moved to suppress the evidence obtained pursuant to that arrest, arguing that since the ordinance did not provide for imprisonment for its violation, it was illegal to arrest him for violating the ordinance or to search him incident to that illegal arrest. Upon review of the record and consideration of the state’s confession of error, we agree with Beles’ argument. This ordinance did not provide for jail time and therefore it did not provide for a full custodial arrest.

Consequently, the officer had no authority to conduct a full custodial search of Beles incident to the “arrest.”1 The trial court therefore should have granted the motion to suppress. See Sims v. State, 622 So. 2d 180 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993).

Accordingly, the conviction and sentence under review are reversed.

. We note that although a search incident to a full custodial arrest was not permitted under the circumstances present in this case, we do not intend by this opinion to preclude those investigatory stop searches or pat-down searches pursuant to Terry, where the officer has reasonable and articulable grounds for believing the defendant was armed. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1883, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968) (Fourth Amendment permits police officer’s limited search for weapons in circumstances where "reasonably prudent man ... would be warranted in the belief that his safety or that of others was in danger" based upon “reasonable inferences ... drawfn] from the facts in light of [officer's] experience").


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