RICHARD JAMES ROBERTS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1975-08-29
No. 74-574
McNULTY, C. J., and SCHEB, J., concur.
318 So. 2d 166 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1975) Positive Treatment
Cited by 8 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

Richard Roberts was arrested for harboring a fugitive when police found his roommate wanted in Michigan. The court reversed the conviction, holding that the officer lacked probable cause to arrest Roberts merely for sharing an apartment with a fugitive, as there was no evidence Roberts was assisting the fugitive's escape.


Holding

The court held that Officer Dorn lacked probable cause to arrest Roberts because the crime of accessory after the fact requires evidence that the defendant gave aid with intent to help the fugitive escape, and merely living with a fugitive who was not even concealing himself provided no such evidence. Therefore, the search was invalid and the motion to suppress should have been granted.


Headnotes

[1] A search incident to an arrest is invalid if the arrest itself was made without probable cause.

[2] Probable cause to arrest for being an accessory after the fact requires evidence that the person provided aid to a fugitive with the intent that the fugitive should avoid…

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Key Quotes

“As related to the instant case, the crime of accessory after the fact requires that a person give aid to a fugitive with the intent that he should escape detection. Dorn had no evidence whatsoever that appellant was doing anything to assist Smith in hiding.”

Establishes the legal standard for accessory after the fact and applies it to conclude insufficient probable cause existed

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Facts & Procedural History

Detective Dorn stopped a motorcyclist named Smith on a traffic pretext. After discovering Smith was wanted on Michigan felony narcotics warrants, Dorn…

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Opinion of the Court
GRIMES, Judge.

GRIMES, Judge.

The appellant was charged with the possession of phencyclidine. After his motion to suppress was denied, he entered a plea of nolo contendere, reserving the right to appeal the denial of his motion pursuant to Ashby v. State, Fla.1971, 245 So. 2d 225.

Detective Dorn stopped a motorcyclist named Smith because he thought his vehicle had neither a tag nor a taillight. As it turned out, the vehicle had both. After a routine radio check proved negative, Dorn allowed Smith to proceed. Shortly thereafter, he received a radio measage advising that Smith was wanted in Michigan on two felony narcotics warrants. Dorn then proceeded to the address he had seen on Smith’s temporary Florida driving permit and arrested him as being “a fugitive from justice.”

While Dorn was making the arrest, appellant, who was Smith’s roommate, returned to the apartment with a third person named Allen Serap. Appellant admitted knowing Smith in Michigan for about six years but denied knowing that Smith was a fugitive. However, Serap said it was common knowledge that Smith was a fugitive and that appellant knew it. At this point, Dorn arrested appellant for “harboring a fugitive.” In the course of a search incident to the arrest, two packets of phencyclidine were found on appellant’s person.

The propriety of the search depends upon the validity of the arrest. There is no crime in Florida known as “harboring a fugitive.” However, one is guilty of being an accessory after the fact if he “maintains or assists” a felon to whom he is not related or gives him “any other aid” with the “intent that he shall avoid or escape detection, arrest, trial or punishment.” Fla.Stat. § 776.03 (1973). The fact that Dorn did not describe the offense with technical accuracy would not be a basis upon which to invalidate the arrest. Therefore, the issue is whether Officer Dorn had probable cause to arrest appellant for being an accessory after the fact.

Even assuming the validity of the Michigan warrants 1 and the reliability of the uncorroborated statement of Serap, the only pertinent information known to Dorn was that appellant was sharing an apartment with a person he knew to be a fugitive from Michigan. This did not provide the probable cause necessary to arrest appellant. As related to the instant case, the crime of accessory after the fact requires that a person give aid to a fugitive with the intent that he should escape detection. Dorn had no evidence whatsoever that appellant was doing anything to assist Smith in hiding. As a matter of fact, while presumably not advertising that he was wanted in Michigan, Smith wasn’t even concealing himself. Officer Dorn testified that the names of both Smith and appellant appeared on a utility bill found in the apartment. The common law crime of misprision of felony does not exist in Florida. Holland v. State, Fla.App.2d, 1974, 302 So. 2d 806.

Since Officer Dorn did not have probable cause to arrest appellant for the crime of accessory after the fact, the resulting search was invalid and the motion to suppress should have been granted.

The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent herewith.

McNULTY, C. J., and SCHEB, J., concur. . The Michigan warrants were never introduced into evidence at the hearing. Officer Dorn testified that Michigan apparently had decided not to extradite Smith. In view of our holding in this ease, it is unnecessary for us to decide whether under Whitely v. Warden, 1971, 401 U.S. 560, 91 S.Ct. 1031, 28 L.Ed.2d 306, proof of the sufficiency of the Michigan warrants was a condition precedent to Dorn’s right to arrest Smith in his apartment and thereby be in a position to arrest and search appellant.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Bowen v. State, 791 So. 2d 44 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001)
    …a felony to authorities, the substantive law of Florida does not recognize such a crime. Holland v. State, 302 So. 2d 806 (Fla. 2d DCA 1974). Thus, the crime of accessory after the fact requires some overt action by the defendant. Roberts v. State, 318 So. 2d 166 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975) (holding that merely living with person, knowing that there is an active outstanding warrant for person’s arrest, does not constitute crime of accessory after the fact). See also State v. Brown, 197 Neb. 131, 247 N.W. 2d 616 (1976…
    1 / 2
  • Ruiz v. State, 388 So. 2d 610 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980)
    …4 (3) Neither the fact that Ruiz was with Valle two days after the shooting nor that they both tried to avoid being captured5 provides any evidence that Valle had been assisted in his attempt to escape apprehension for the murder. Roberts v. State, 318 So. 2d 166 (Fla.2d DCA 1975); Overton v. State, 161 Ind.App. 650, 317 N.E. 2d 467 (1974). In sum, as in the very similar cases of Dennis v. State, 230 Ind. 210, 102 N.E. 2d 650 (1952) and State v. Hernandez, 83 Ariz. 279, 320 P. 2d. 467 (1958), there was, the…
  • Sears v. State, 319 So. 2d 69 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975)
    …second degree, punishable as provided in § 775.082 or § 775.083. Of course, the fact that the officer did not describe the offense with technical accuracy would not be a basis upon which to invalidate the arrest. Roberts v. State, Fla.App.2d 1975, 318 So. 2d 166. However, the record is devoid of evidence that appellant was causing a public disturbance or endangering the safety of another person or property. Since the arrest cannot be justified under Fla.Stat. § 856.011, it was an illegal arrest. Hence, any…

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