STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
REINA OCABEL GONZALEZ, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 2006-02-03
No. 5D05-348
THOMPSON and LAWSON, JJ., concur.
919 So. 2d 702 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (2006) Positive Treatment
Cited by 9 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 appealed a trial court's order suppressing an altered identification card seized from a passenger during a traffic stop. The appellate court reversed, holding that the officer's request for identification during a consensual encounter did not require reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.


Holding

The officer's request for identification was part of a consensual encounter, not an investigatory stop, and therefore did not require reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. A police officer may approach an individual in public and request identification during a consensual encounter without founded suspicion, and such a request does not constitute detention or seizure.


Headnotes

[1] A police officer's request for identification during a consensual encounter does not constitute a detention or seizure.

[2] A consensual encounter between a police officer and an individual does not require the officer to possess a founded suspicion of criminal activity.

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Key Quotes

“In a consensual encounter, a police officer has the right to approach an individual in public and ask questions or request identification without having a founded suspicion of criminal activity; the individual may, but is not required, to cooperate with the police at this stage.”

Establishes the legal standard for consensual encounters and the officer's authority to request identification without reasonable suspicion.

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Facts & Procedural History

Deputy Middleton conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle with non-functioning tail lights. During the stop, Middleton asked the passenger, Reina Ocabel …

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Opinion of the Court
PALMER, J.

PALMER, J.

The State appeals the trial court’s order granting Reina Ocabel Gonzalez’s motion to suppress. Concluding that the trial court incorrectly applied the law to the facts of this case, we reverse.

Gonzalez was charged by information with knowingly possessing a blank, forged, stolen, fictitious, counterfeit or unlawfully issued identification card.1 Gonzalez filed a pretrial motion to suppress the allegedly altered identification card, arguing that it was seized as the result of an unlawful stop, search, and seizure. A hearing was held on Gonzalez’s motion to suppress.

At the suppression hearing, Deputy Middleton testified that Gonzalez was a passenger in a vehicle that did not have working tail lights. Middleton explained that he conducted a traffic stop of the vehicle and that during the stop he requested that Gonzalez produce identification. Deputy Middleton alleged that Gonzalez consented to his request and produced an altered identification card.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court entered an order granting Gonzalez’s motion to suppress. The trial court ruled that, by asking Gonzalez to produce identification, Deputy Middleton’s conduct constituted an investigatory stop. The trial court further explained that, since Deputy Middleton lacked a reasonable suspicion of any criminal activity on the part of Gonzalez, the stop was unlawful.

The State challenges the trial court’s ruling, arguing that Deputy Middleton’s encounter with Gonzalez was consensual, and therefore, he did not need to possess a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity prior to requesting that Gonzalez produce identification. We agree.

A ruling on a motion to suppress comes to the appellate court as presumptively correct as to disputed facts and all reasonable inferences and deductions drawn from them; however, the trial court’s application of the law to the facts is reviewed under the de novo standard. Murphy v. State, 898 So. 2d 1081 (Fla. 5th DCA 2005).

In a consensual encounter, a police officer has the right to approach an individual in public and ask questions or request identification without having a founded suspicion of criminal activity; the individual may, but is not required, to cooperate with the police at this stage. Morrow v. State, 848 So. 2d 1290 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003). A police officer’s request to a defendant for his identification does not constitute detention or seizure. Holden v. State, 877 So. 2d 800 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004); Clemons v. State, 747 So. 2d 454 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999).

In the instant case, no evidence was presented that Gonzalez was ordered out of the car or ordered to stay in the car. Instead, Deputy Middleton testified that he approached the vehicle and asked Gonzalez for her identification. He testified that he did not order her to give it to him. Gonzalez did not present any evidence that Deputy Middleton blocked her from exiting the car or took any action in an effort to force her to present her identification. Thus, the contact between Gonzalez and Deputy Middleton was a consensual encounter, not an investigatory stop. Compare Morrow v. State, 848 So. 2d 1290 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003)(holding that officer’s encounter with defendant, which began as consensual encounter, evolved into investigatory stop requiring reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, when defendant refused to give the officer his name and instead of ending encounter, the officer positioned himself outside defendant’s car door and, called for back-up; officer’s conduct would have caused any reasonable person to believe that he or she was not free to leave).

In closing, we note that Gonzalez also argues that the altered identification card should have been suppressed because she acquiesced to Deputy Middleton’s authority when she gave him her identification. However, the trial court did not make any findings on this issue and Gonzalez failed to present any testimony or evidence at the suppression hearing to support her argument that she was intimidated by Deputy Middleton or that he had engaged in any behavior that would constitute an unreasonable show of authority. Instead, the testimony presented at the hearing on the motion to suppress indicated that Middleton simply asked Gonzalez for her identification and she gave it to him.

REVERSED and REMANDED.

THOMPSON and LAWSON, JJ., concur. . See § 322.212, Fla. Stat. (2003).


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Citator

Cited By

  • Brye v. State, 927 So. 2d 78 (Fla. 1st DCA 2006)
    …e contact.” Popple, 626 So. 2d at 186. During the initial questioning of Appellant, the deputy asked for identification. “A police officer’s request to a defendant for his identification does not constitute detention or seizure.” State v. Gonzalez, 919 So. 2d 702, 703 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006); Clemons v. State, 747 So. 2d 454, 455 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999). During the investigation of Appellant, Deputy Hunni-cutt clipped the I.D. to his police belt. After running an I.D. check and finding no outstanding warrants in App…
  • McKNIGHT v. State, 972 So. 2d 247 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007)
    …de was nothing more than a consensual police-citizen encounter, which did not trigger constitutional safeguards. See Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 553— 54, 100 S.Ct. 1870; Golphin, 945 So. 2d at 1180, 1187-88; Popple, 626 So. 2d at 186; State v. Gonzalez, 919 So. 2d 702, 703 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006) (stating that in a consensual police-citizen encounter, an officer can approach an individual in public, ask questions, and request identification without having a founded suspicion of criminal activity). When Appellant ora…
  • State v. Galicia, 948 So. 2d 983 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007)
    …Cronin’s request, there are no objective facts that support the trial court’s conclusion that his belief was reasonable. Deputy Cronin merely asked Galicia for his identification, and [*985] Galicia complied with the request. See State v. Gonzalez, 919 So. 2d 702, 704 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006) (holding that request of passenger in vehicle lawfully stopped for traffic infraction for her identification was consensual encounter where there was no evidence that defendant was intimidated or forced to comply with reques…

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