STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
JOHN A. HENDRY, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1975-02-14
No. 74-343
McNULTY, C. J., and HOBSON, J., concur.
309 So. 2d 61 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1975) Negative Treatment
Cited by 18 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

This case reviews an order of suppression concerning a temporary police detention based on an anonymous tip. The court held that the detention was illegal because the anonymous tip, without corroborating circumstances, did not provide reasonable grounds to believe the individual possessed marijuana.


Holding

No, the police did not have sufficient grounds to detain the appellee. The anonymous tip, lacking indicia of reliability and without any observable corroborating circumstances, did not meet the "Stop and Frisk" law's requirement of circumstances reasonably indicating criminal activity.


Headnotes

[1] A law enforcement officer may temporarily detain a person if circumstances reasonably indicate that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a viola…

[2] A temporary detention is permissible to ascertain the identity of the detained person and the circumstances leading the officer to believe a criminal offense has occurred…

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Key Quotes

“Whenever any law enforcement officer of this state encounters any person under circumstances which reasonably indicate that such person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a violation of the criminal laws of this state or the criminal ordinances of any municipality or county, he may temporarily detain such person for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of the person temporarily detained and the circumstances surrounding his presence abroad which led the officer to believe that he had committed, was committing, or was about to commit a criminal offense.”

This quote from Fla.Stat. § 90-1.151(2) defines the legal standard for temporary detention under the 'Stop and Frisk' law.

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Facts & Procedural History

A highway patrol trooper received an anonymous tip from a motorist about people possessing marijuana in a specific car. Forty-five minutes later, offi…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

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Opinion of the Court
GRIMES, Judge.

GRIMES, Judge.

On this appeal from an order of suppression, the evidence reflects that at approximately 11:34 A.M. Trooper Welch of the Florida Highway Patrol was advised by a passing motorist that some people in an automobile in Old Bridge Square had marijuana in their possession. He was given a description of the car and the tag number. Welch did not know the informant, nor did he ascertain the informant’s name. The Highway Patrol relayed the information to the Lee County Sheriff’s Department.

About forty-five minutes later, Trooper Welch, accompanied by Corporal Copping of the sheriff’s department, located a vehicle in Old Bridge Square matching the description Welch had been given. Both officers got out of their cruisers. Appellee and others got out of the subject vehicle and approached the officers. Corporal Copping testified, “At this time I advised them that I would have to detain them, that they were suspected of being in possession of marijuana, and at that time I advised them of their rights and [that] I was detaining them until Agent Matthews got there.”

Matthews, a narcotics agent with the sheriff’s department, arrived five minutes later. In light of our decision in this case, we need not pass on the propriety of the manner in which the marijuana was later found in appellee’s vehicle. In essence, the trial judge concluded that appellee had been illegally detained and that the marijuana which was discovered was a fruit of that illegal detention.

The U.S. Supreme Court in Adams v. Williams, 1972, 407 U.S. 143, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 32 L.Ed.2d 612, approved certain temporary police detentions short of arrest when it said:

“In Terry1 this Court recognized that ‘a police officer may in appropriate circumstances and in an appropriate manner approach a person for purposes of investigating possible criminal behavior even though there is no probable cause to make an arrest.’ Id., at 22, 88 S.Ct. at 1880, [20 L.Ed.2d] at 906. The Fourth Amendment does not require a policeman who lacks the precise level of information necessary for probable cause to arrest to simply shrug his shoulders and allow a crime to occur or a criminal to escape. On the contrary, Terry recognizes that it may be the essence of good police work to adopt an intermediate response. See id., at 23, 88 S.Ct. at 1881, [20 L.Ed.2d at 907], A brief stop of a suspicious individual, in order to determine his identity or to maintain the status quo momentarily while obtaining more information, may be most reasonable in light of the facts known to the officer at the time. . . . ”

In considering the extent to which a tip may play in giving the police the right to temporarily detain, the Supreme Court went on to say:

“Applying these principles to the present case, we believe that Sgt. Connolly acted justifiably in responding to his informant’s tip. The informant was known to him personally and had provided him with information in the past. This is a stronger case than obtains in the case of an anonymous telephone tip. The informant here came forward personally to give information that was immediately verifiable at the scene. . . .

“In reaching this conclusion, we reject respondent’s argument that reasonable cause for a stop and frisk can only be based on the officer’s personal observation, rather than on information supplied by another person. Informants’ tips, like all other clues and evidence coming to a policeman on the scene, may vary greatly in their value and reliability. One simple rule will not cover every situation. Some tips, completely lacking in indicia of reliability, would either warrant no police response or require further investigation before a forcible stop of a suspect would be authorized. But in some situations — for example, when the victim of a street crime seeks immediate police aid and gives a description of his assailant, or when a credible informant warns of a specific impending crime — the subtleties of the hearsay rule should not thwart an appropriate police response.”

The passage of Fla.Stat. § 90-1.151 (1973), commonly known as the “Stop and Frisk” law was precipitated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Terry v. Ohio, supra. Subsection (2) thereof which deals with “stopping” rather than “frisking” provides:

“(2) Whenever any law enforcement officer of this state encounters any person under circumstances which reasonably indicate that such person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a violation of the criminal laws of this state or the criminal ordinances of any municipality or county, he may temporarily detain such person for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of the person temporarily detained and the circumstances surrounding his presence abroad which led the officer to believe that he had committed, was committing, or was about to commit a criminal offense.” (emphasis added)

At the time Corporal Copping informed appellee that he could not leave, all that Copping or any other officer knew was that forty-five minutes earlier an unknown, untested informant said that occupants of the car from which appellee subsequently emerged had marijuana in their possession. There were no suspicious circumstances observable to the officers which would tend to corroborate the anonymous tip. Without more, we do not believe Corporal Copping encountered appellee under circumstances sufficient to reasonably indicate appellee possessed marijuana and, thereby, justify his temporary detention.

Affirmed.

McNULTY, C. J., and HOBSON, J., concur. . Terry v. Ohio, 1968, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889.


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Citator

Cited By

  • State v. Webb, 398 So. 2d 820 (Fla. 1981)
    …protruding from Hetland’s waistband, one of the deputies reached under Hetland’s shirt and took the revolver. He was then arrested for carrying a concealed firearm. Because of the earlier Second District Court of Appeal decision in State v. Hendry, 309 So. 2d 61 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975), the trial court granted Hetland’s motion to suppress the firearm on the basis that it was obtained from him by an unlawful search and seizure. On appeal, the district court expressly receded from its earlier decision in Hen-dry a…
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  • Hetland v. State, 387 So. 2d 963 (Fla. 1980)
    …elow, 366 So. 2d 831, answered this question in the affirmative provided the anonymous tip bore sufficient indicia of reliability. In reaching its decision the court expressly receded from the rule announced in its prior decision in State v. Hendry, 309 So. 2d 61 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975). The District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, however, relied on State v. Hendry in reaching a negative response to this question. St. John v. State, 363 So. 2d 862 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978). But cf. Byrd v. State, 380 So. 2d 457 (Fla…
  • State v. Hetland, 366 So. 2d 831 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979)
    …DANAHY, Judge. Can an anonymous tip provide the basis for a valid stop and frisk? That question was answered in the negative by this court in State v. Hendry, 309 So. 2d 61 (Fla.2d DCA 1975). In the Hendry case, law enforcement officers received information from an unidentified passing motorist that some people in an automobile in Old Bridge Square had marijuana in their possession. A description of the car and the lic…

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