STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
CAROLINA LOPEZ, APPELLEE
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.
The court held that while the trial court erred in suppressing evidence based on the lack of a warrant for the search, the evidence must still be suppressed because the arrest was unlawful due to a lack of probable cause.
[1] A search of a person incident to a lawful arrest is a recognized exception to the warrant requirement.
[2] An arrest is unlawful if police lack probable cause to believe the arrestee has committed a crime.
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 intelligencePolice arrested a defendant and searched her person. The defendant moved to suppress the evidence, arguing the arrest lacked probable cause and the se…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Warrant Requirement cases and more on FLexlaw
The state appeals the circuit court’s order granting the defendant’s motion to suppress. The defendant’s motion raised two arguments: (1) the police did not have probable cause to arrest her, and thus any search of her person was incident to an unlawful arrest; and (2) the search of her person was otherwise illegal absent a search warrant. The circuit court granted the motion pursuant to the second argument, finding that although the police had reasonable suspicion to detain the defendant, the police should have obtained a warrant for the search of her person.
We conclude that the circuit court erred in granting the motion based on the second argument. If the arrest was lawful, then the police were permitted to search the defendant incident to the lawful arrest without a warrant. See Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332, 129 S.Ct. 1710, 1716, 173 L.Ed.2d 485 (2009) (“Among the exceptions to the warrant requirement is a search incident to a lawful arrest.”).
However, we agree with the defendant’s first argument that the police did not have probable cause to arrest her, and thus any search of her person was incident to an unlawful arrest. See United States v. Di Re, 332 U.S. 581, 593, 68 S.Ct. 222, 92 L.Ed. 210 (1948) (arrest of the defendant could not be justified based on the defendant’s presence in an automobile with a suspect where the informant did not point out the defendant as a suspect and the police had no information indicating that the defendant heard or took part in any conversation relating to the crime).
Because the circuit court’s decision to grant the motion was right, but for the wrong reason, we affirm. See Robertson v. State, 829 So.2d 901, 906 (Fla.2002) (“‘[E]ven though a trial court’s ruling is based on improper reasoning, the ruling will be upheld if there is any theory or principle of law in the record which would support the ruling.’ ”) (citation and emphasis omitted).
Affirmed.
TAYLOR, J., and PEGG, ROBERT L., Associate Judge, concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- United States v. Di RE, 332 U.S. 581 (U.S. 1948)
- Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (U.S. 2009)
- Swett v. State, 829 So. 2d 901 (Fla. 2002)
- Robertson v. State, 829 So. 2d 901 (Fla. 2002)