ROBERT VINCENT BOYDELL, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 1997-04-04
No. 96-193
PETERSON, C.J., and ANTOON, JJ., concur.
690 So. 2d 745 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (1997) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 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

Robert Boydell was detained during execution of a valid search warrant at a residence and asked to empty his pockets, revealing cocaine. He challenged the detention and search as illegal. The Florida appellate court affirmed the trial court's denial of his suppression motion, holding that officers lawfully detained him during the warrant's execution and had probable cause to search him based on statements from a homeowner.


Holding

The detention was lawful under Michigan v. Summers, which permits detention of occupants during search warrant execution. The officer had probable cause to search Boydell based on the homeowner's statement that he possessed cocaine, corroborated by the fact that the search warrant indicated drugs were present on the premises and Boydell was found on those premises.


Headnotes

[1] Law enforcement officers may detain individuals found on the premises subject to a search warrant to prevent flight and minimize risk of harm.

[2] A search warrant authorizing the search of a home, outbuildings, and vehicles within its curtilage may extend to the search of individuals located upon the premises.

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Key Quotes

“occupants of a residence subject to a search warrant can be detained to prevent flight in the event that incriminating evidence is found and also in order to minimize the risk of harm to the officers and the occupants”

Establishes the legal basis for detaining Boydell during the search warrant execution under Michigan v. Summers

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Facts & Procedural History

Officers executed a valid search warrant at the home of Lorene Freeman and Daniel Greenville to search for drugs. Boydell was standing just outside th…

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Opinion of the Court
HARRIS, Judge.

HARRIS, Judge.

Robert Vincent Boydell was detained during the proper execution of a valid search warrant at the home of Lorene Freeman and Daniel Greenville. Boydell was standing just outside the residence on the property subject to the search and was being detained (together with others similarly situated) when he complied with an officer’s request to empty his pockets. The officers found Boydell to be in possession of cocaine. Boydell moved to suppress the evidence, arguing that the detention and the search were illegal. The trial court, although ruling that a statement made by Lorene Freeman to the officer indicating that Boydell had cocaine in his pocket was inadmissible because Freeman had died before trial, denied the motion to suppress, stating:

[Although the search warrant does not particularly request the search of individuals located within the curtilage of the residence, its authorization to search the home, outbuildings and vehicles within the curtilage of the home, extends to a search of individuals located upon the premises.

Although we disagree with the court’s basis for denying the motion, we nevertheless affirm its holding.

First we conclude that it was appropriate for the officers to detain the occupants of the property subject to search during the execution of the search warrant. The United States Supreme Court in Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 101 S.Ct. 2587, 69 L.Ed.2d 340 (1981), held that occupants of a residence subject to a search warrant can be detained to prevent flight in the event that incriminating evidence is found and also in order to minimize the risk of harm to the officers and the occupants. See also State v. Thomas, 603 So. 2d 1382 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992).

During the detention, the officer was advised by Ms. Freeman, one of the owners of the home subject to the search, that Boy-dell possessed cocaine. Since the affidavit supporting the search warrant indicated the presence of drugs on the premises owned by the informant, the officer’s belief that the informant’s statement gave him probable cause to search Boydell was, in our view, well-founded. The question is whether “ ‘the facts and circumstances within them (the officers’) knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information (are) sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that’ an offense has been or is being committed.” Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 175-176, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 1310-11, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949), citing Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925).

Even though Ms. Freeman’s statement might have been hearsay had it been offered to prove the truth of the matter, the relevance for a probable cause analysis is that the statement was made to the police officer by a person he reasonably believed was in a position to know facts justifying the statement. Having heard the statement from one reasonably believed to be involved in the sale of cocaine (based on the affidavit and the search warrant) and finding Boydell on the premises where it was alleged that cocaine was being sold, a reasonable person would believe that Boydell was involved in criminal activity. Even though the court erred in excluding the statement based on a hearsay objection, it nevertheless made the correct ruling on the motion.

AFFIRMED.

PETERSON, C.J., and ANTOON, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Harris v. State, 790 So. 2d 1246 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001)
    …tly, the officers had the right to detain the occupants found on the property being searched during the execution of the search warrant in order to minimize any risk of harm to the officers or the occupants of the property. Id. See Boydell v. State, 690 So. 2d 745, 746 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997); State v. Thomas, 603 So. 2d 1382 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992). Having concluded that Harris’ detention was proper, we must now determine whether the officers had any legal basis to justify the search of his person. The search warra…
  • Harris v. State, 734 So. 2d 1204 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999)
    …1 So. 2d 32, 35 (Fla.1985). However, even if we were to consider his motion to suppress as raising the argument that he was illegally detained, thus tainting the subsequent search of his vehicle, we find it to be without merit. See Boydell v. State, 690 So. 2d 745, 745 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997). WARNER, C.J., SHAHOOD and TAYLOR, JJ., concur.…

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