STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
MARK ROMAN, 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.
Florida appeals the suppression of marijuana seized from defendant Roman's dormitory room, arguing a police officer properly knocked and announced before entering or that exceptions to the knock-and-announce statute applied. The court affirms suppression, holding that the trial judge's findings that the officer failed to knock and that no statutory exceptions justified non-compliance are supported by the record and applicable law.
The court held that the officer failed to knock and announce his authority before the second entry into the room, as evidenced by the fact that neither officer in the room nor any students heard a knock or announcement. Additionally, no statutory exceptions to the knock-and-announce requirement were applicable, as there was no reasonable belief that the officers' safety was in imminent danger and no reasonable grounds to believe evidence would be destroyed, and the officer's initial invited entry did not authorize a subsequent unannounced re-entry in official capacity.
[1] A trial court's findings of fact on a motion to suppress evidence are presumed correct on appeal and will be sustained if supported by the record.
[2] The knock-and-announce statute applies to arrests made without a warrant.
Previewing 2 of 6 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Although Beckstrom testified he knocked before entering, neither officer in the room, and none of the students there, heard such a knock (or any announcement of authority as required by F.S. § 901.19(1); see Benefield v. State, supra). Thus, there can be no doubt that the record supports the trial judge's ruling that no knock occurred.”
Establishes the factual basis for finding the officer failed to comply with statutory knock-and-announce requirements despite the officer's testimony
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceTwo armed plainclothes police officers and a cadet entered defendant Roman's dormitory room at Rollins College initially in response to his invited en…
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 Arrest Without Warrant cases and more on FLexlaw
SCHWARTZ, ALAN R., Associate Judge.
Once again, this .Court is presented with problems arising from the application of the “knock-and-announce” statutes, F.S. § 901.19(1); F.S.§ 933.09; see the leading case of Benefield v. State, Fla.1964, 160 So. 2d 706. The trial judge, on disputed evidence, determined that the arresting City of Winter Park police officer had not knocked or announced his authority prior to entering the defendant Roman’s Rollins College dormitory room for the purpose of arresting him, without a warrant, for possession -and delivery of cannabis, and granted Roman’s motion to suppress the marijuana which had been seized from the room as a result of the arrest, under F.S. § 901.19(1) and “pursuant to the principles as [stated] in State v. Collier, Fla.App. 1973, 270 So. 2d 451.” The state appeals. We conclude that the order of suppression, which impliedly but effectively rejected the applicability of any of the exceptions to the knock-and-announce statute argued by the state, is supported both by the record on appeal and the applicable law, and accordingly affirm the decision below.
Much of what occurred at McKean Hall, on the Rollins campus on the evening of January 29, 1973 appears without dispute in the record. At about 10:00 that night, two armed, plain clothes Winter Park police officers, Beckstrom and Sickler, along with a young, unarmed police “cadet,” Linda Spencer, went to McKean to execute search warrants and capiases on two students, “Charlie and Cliff,” who lived in Room No. 1. No one answered their knock on that door, so they went to Room No. 2, where the defendant Roman, and Steve David, both freshmen at Rollins, lived. Roman responded to the knock on his door and went off to try to find Charlie and Cliff for the officers. When he returned without them shortly thereafter Roman asked the officers why they were looking for them. Beckstrom replied, to “attempt to buy some dope.” Roman said that he had some for sale and asked Beck-strom, Sickler and Spencer into the room.
In the room, watching television, were Roman’s roommate, David and another Rollins freshman, both of whom were, as was Roman, unarmed. The room had no toilet facilities, or any type of drain, and but two exits, the door through which the .officers came in from the hallway (and through which Beckstrom was shortly to return), and a window which was closed and screened. Once there, Roman and Beckstrom began negotiations for the sale and purchase of a quantity of marijuana which the defendant produced from a drawer. If Beckstrom had arrested Roman on the spot and subsequently seized the cannabis (as he had the undoubted right to do since Roman was obviously in the process of committing felonies in his presence), there would have been no question concerning the ¿^applicability of the knock-and-announce requirements prior to the officers’ initial, invited entry into the room. See Koptyra v. State, Fla.App. 1965, 172 So. 2d 628; Powers v. State, Fla.App. 1973, 271 So. 2d 462; State v. Yenke, Fla.App. 1974, 288 So. 2d 531. For unaccountable reasons, perhaps relating to an entirely incorrect belief that money had to change hands in order to constitute a crime, perhaps because Beckstrom wanted the company of more armed officers (and representatives of the press who apparently were waiting outside the dormitory), however, he did not. After arriving at a price of $20.00 Beckstrom said he had to go out to his car to get the money. He then laid the "lid" of cannabis they were discussing on a table and departed, leaving Officer Sickler (armed and standing by the window) and Cadet Spencer behind in the room.
A few moments later, he returned, accompanied by two other officers, all of them with guns drawn. Although Beck-strom testified he knocked before entering, neither officer in the room, and none of the students there, heard such a knock (or any announcement of authority as required by F.S. § 901.19(1); see Benefield v. State, supra). Thus, there can be no doubt that the record supports the trial judge’s ruling that no knock occurred. Cameron v. State, Fla.App.1959, 112 So. 2d 864. Proceeding, then, without having knocked or announced, Beckstrom, with the other officers, opened the door, barged into the room and simultaneously arrested Roman, and seized the cannabis which had remained there during Beckstrom’s absence. Thereafter, with Roman handcuffed and at gun point, the officers first searched his desk and dresser, discovering further contraband. Then, after Beckstrom told the defendant that if he revealed the location of still other marijuana, he would not be charged further, Roman did so and additional cannabis was seized.
As the First District said in Cameron v. State, supra, at 112 So. 2d 869:
“On a motion to suppress evidence the trial judge is trier of both law and fact. His conclusions come to this court clothed with a presumption of correctness and in testing the accuracy of his conclusions on questions of fact we should interpret the evidence and all reasonable inferences and deductions capable of being drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to sustain those conclusions.”
Viewing the complete record before us in this manner, it is apparent that it wholly sustains the order below. The State’s primary contentions here — that Beckstrom actually knocked before entering; or that, if he did not, he was not required to do so because he reasonably feared either for the safety of the officers in the room or that the contraband might be disposed of prior to his entry, or both — could properly have been made only to the trial judge. We cannot disturb his rejection of those claims on appeal.
We have already noted the clear, in fact overwhelming evidence, which supports the finding that Beckstrom did not in fact knock before entering. And the record just as clearly supports the rejection of the state’s contentions that any exception to the statutory requirement existed as a matter of fact or law. While Beckstrom said at the hearing that he feared for the safety of Sickler and Spencer, the trial judge could properly have concluded either that this belief did not in fact exist or that no such belief was, as the Benefield “exception,” at 160 So. 2d 710, requires “ . justified . . .’’by the existing circumstances. There was in fact no reason whatever to believe that either officer within the room, one of whom carried the only weapon there, was, as Benefield says, “in imminent peril of bodily harm.” And while Beckstrom also said that he was “worried” about the possibility that the contraband might be disposed of, see State v. Kelly, Fla. 1973, 287 So. 2d 13, the trial court — again—could either have disbelieved this profession or concluded that there were no “reasonable grounds to believe the marijuana within the [room] would be immediately destroyed if [he] announced [his] presence.” Earman v. State, Fla. 1972, 265 So. 2d 695, 697; State v. Collier, supra, at 270 So. 2d 454, cited by the trial judge (no evidence of concern or “reasonable grounds to be concerned about the destruction of evidence”). In fact, the occupants of a room which had no drain and only two exits, at both of which armed police officers were standing, had no opportunity at all to get rid of the seized marijuana prior to Beckstrom’s entry.1 As in the Collier case, we cannot
“ . . . hold the trial judge in error for failing to find the existence of such exceptional circumstances that would justify non-compliance with the statute.”
Again, as in Collier, the state argues that Beckstrom’s re-entry into the dormitory room was, in effect, consented to by Roman, since he knew that Beck-strom was going to return after his first, invited entrance. We agree with the trial court, however, that the holding in Collier is dispositive of this issue, as well, to the contrary of the state’s position. We held there, at 270 So. 2d 454-455:
“At oral argument the state contended that because Officer Hill was invited into the apartment as a social guest, he had the right, after leaving and without further formality, to reenter the apartment with his fellow officers for purposes of executing the search warrant. This argument really begs the question because it assumes, without demonstrating, that the statute in question has an exception which covers such an entry. The statute does not have such exception and one cannot reasonably be found in the implication of the statute. It seems rather clear that Officer Hill’s first entry into the apartment was authorized by the Colliers, but that such authorization did not relieve Officer Hill from the burdens of the statute after he left and returned not in the capacity of a social guest, but in his official capacity for the purpose of executing a search warrant.”
Nor is the case controlled by our recent decision in State v. Yenke, Fla.App.1974, 288, So. 2d 531, 532. In that case, the evidence in question had been voluntarily handed to an officer (who was in the position of Sickler in this case), prior and unrelated to the unannounced return of another officer (who was like Beckstrom here) with a search warrant. The Court held that the seizure was not “the result of a search” which followed an improper entry. In this case, in contrast, there was no seizure of marijuana at all — not even of the quantity which Beckstrom laid on the table, much less of that secured upon a search of the room — until, and because of Beckstrom and the other officers’ return and warrant-less arrest of Roman for the commission of a felony. Thus, the statement of Yenke at 288 So. 2d 532, to the effect that
“Had agent Riffle been involved in executing the search warrant when he returned to the house we would have a different factual situation requiring the application of the rule of State v. Collier, Fla.App.1970, 270 So. 2d 451.”2
is directly applicable.
For essentially the same reasons, neither Koptyra v. State, supra, nor Powers v. State, supra, is determinative. In each of those cases, the entry which resulted in the seizure was consented to by the defendant.3 As in Yenke, the seizure was not the result of an entry to which the “knock-and-announce” requirements applied. In this case, the seizures occurred only after and because of Beckstrom’s re-entry which was subject to those requirements, but which did not comply with them. See also Urquhart v. State, Fla.App.1968, 211 So. 2d 79.4
Affirmed.
CROSS, J., concurs.
DOWNEY, J., dissents.
. In resolving these issues, the trial judge may well have been impressed by the fact that, although the court didn’t believe him, Beck-strom himself said that he knocked prior to entry. Apparently, then, according to his own avowed actions, he did not think that a knock or an announcement would have led to the dire results he said at the hearing on the motion to suppress that he feared when he entered the room.
. The “knock-and-announce” rules applicable under F.S. § 901.19(1) to a search which follows even a justified arrest without a warrant, see Benefield v. State, supra, are identical to those involved, under F.S. § 933.09, when, as in Collier and Yenke, a seizure follows the execution of a search warrant.
. See also the discussion of the Koptyra casé in Judge Cross’ dissenting opinion in Yenke, at 288 So. 2d 534.
.Our disposition of the ease makes it unnecessary to consider Roman’s alternative contentions that the search of his dresser after the arrest was not authorized under Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969) ; and that his revelation of the location of additional marijuana after a promise of leniency did not constitute a voluntary consent, pursuant to the holdings in Bumper v. North Carolina, 391 U.S. 543, 88 S.Ct. 1788, 20 L.Ed.2d 797 (1968) and Earman v. State, supra.
DOWNEY, Judge
(dissenting).
I dissent upon authority of State v. Yenke, Fla.App.1974, 288 So. 2d 531.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By (11 total)
-
State v. Nova, 361 So. 2d 411 (Fla. 1978)…use is before us on petition for writ of certiorari to review the decision of the District Court in Nova v. State, 346 So. 2d 1214 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977), which directly conflicts with Gerrard v. State, 345 So. 2d 849 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977); State v. Roman, 309 So. 2d 12 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975), cert. dismissed 312 So. 2d 761 (Fla.1975); and Sheff v. State, 301 So. 2d 13 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974), aff’d 329 So. 2d 270 (Fla.1976), which hold that, on a motion to suppress, the trial judge’s conclusions of fact come to the revie…
-
Lawrence v. State, 388 So. 2d 1250 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980)…cers who failed to knock and to announce their purpose before entering the premises upon which the contraband was located; there was no delivery of the contraband to either of two undercover officers already present on the premises. State v. Roman, 309 So. 2d 12 (Fla.4th DCA 1975), differs from Yenke and from the present case in one crucial aspect, namely, after the defendant had delivered the contraband to Beckstrom, Beckstrom left the premises, thereby permitting an inference that he abandoned possession…
-
State v. Steffani, 398 So. 2d 475 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981)…signed the arrest form. This Court does not agree.” In light of the facts of this case, this Court is compelled to grant the Motion to Suppress under the recent authority of Hansen v. State, 372 So. 2d 1003 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979), and State v. Roman, 309 So. 2d 12 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975).[1] The applicability of Section 901.19(1), Fla. Stat. (1979) to variations of the “returning undercover officer” situation exemplified by this case has been the subject of numerous decisions — almost all of them, unaccountably…1 / 2
Previewing 3 of 11 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited (12 total)
- Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752 (U.S. 1969)
- Bumper v. North Carolina, 391 U.S. 543 (U.S. 1968)
- Benefield v. State, 160 So. 2d 706 (Fla. 1964)
- Koptyra v. State, 172 So. 2d 628 (Fla. 2d DCA 1965)
- Cameron v. State, 112 So. 2d 864 (Fla. 1st DCA 1959)
- Earman v. State, 265 So. 2d 695 (Fla. 1972)
- State v. Kelly, 287 So. 2d 13 (Fla. 1973)
- Urquhart v. State, 211 So. 2d 79 (Fla. 2d DCA 1968)
- State v. Collier, 270 So. 2d 451 (Fla. 4th DCA 1972)
- Dixon v. State, 288 So. 2d 531 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974)