THE STATE OF FLORIDA
v.
ALEXANDER VINOKUROV
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The State of Florida appealed a trial court's order suppressing evidence of an illegal fish catch discovered during an FWC boat inspection. The appellate court reversed, holding that the FWC had statutory authority to stop and inspect the boat for licenses and safety equipment, and that the evidence was lawfully obtained when discovered in plain view after a third party voluntarily opened a cooler.
The court held that the FWC had statutory authority under § 328.48(4), Fla. Stat. to stop the motorboat for inspection purposes, and that the Fourth Amendment violation claim fails because the state's interest in checking fishing permits, registration, and safety equipment outweighs an individual's interest in freedom from such limited intrusions. The evidence was lawfully obtained when discovered in plain view after a third party voluntarily opened the cooler.
[1] Officers of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have statutory authority under § 328.48(4), Fla. …
[2] A person has a reduced expectation of privacy in a motorboat compared to an automobile for purposes of Fourth Amendment analysis.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Subjective intentions play no role in ordinary, probable-cause Fourth Amendment analysis.”
Establishes that the officer's subjective motivations are irrelevant to the reasonableness of the stop under the Fourth Amendment
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission stopped a motorboat to inspect licenses, registration, and safety equipment. During the encounte…
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Opinion filed August 28, 2024. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
________________
No. 3D23-1930 Lower Tribunal No. 22-2345-A-K
________________
The State of Florida,
Appellant,
vs.
Alexander Vinokurov,
Appellee.
An Appeal from the County Court for Monroe County, Albert L. Kelley, Judge. Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Kayla Heather McNab, Assistant Attorney General, for appellant. The Law Office of Robert David Malove, P.A., Robert David Malove, and Hani Demetrious (Fort Lauderdale), for appellee. Before LINDSEY, MILLER and GOODEN, JJ. PER CURIAM.
This is an appeal by the State of an order suppressing evidence obtained by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (“FWC”).
We reverse the trial court’s order. See Whren v. United States, 517 U.S.
806, 813 (1996) (“Subjective intentions play no role in ordinary, probable-
cause Fourth Amendment analysis.”). The FWC had authority to stop the boat to inspect licenses, registration, and safety resource equipment. State v. Casal, 410 So. 2d 152, 155 (Fla. 1982) (“In sum we find that the state’s interest in random stopping and brief detention of motorboats for the limited purpose of checking fishing permits, registration certificates and safety equipment outweighs a person’s interest in being completely free from such limited intrusion. In light of the absence of less restrictive alternatives which would accomplish the state’s goals, spot checks of motorboats are not unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.”); State v. Starkey, 605 So. 2d
963, 965 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992) (“A person’s expectation of privacy in a motorboat is less than the same expectation of privacy in an automobile.”);
§ 328.48(4), Fla. Stat. During this encounter, another occupant of the boat voluntarily opened the boat’s cooler without a request by the FWC officer and the illegal catch was in plain view. Cf. Miranda v. State, 354 So. 2d 411,
414 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978).
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (U.S. 1996)
- Miranda v. State, 354 So. 2d 411 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978)
- State v. Constantino Casal and Omar Garcia, 410 So. 2d 152 (Fla. 1982)
- State v. Starkey, 605 So. 2d 963 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992)