Bennett v. State

111 So. 3d 983, 2013 WL 1859021, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 7284
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided May 6, 2013·No. No. 1D12-1876·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

ROWE, J.

Cody Bennett appeals his judgment and sentence for possession of cannabis with intent to sell, arguing that the trial court erred in denying the defense motion to suppress evidence obtained in the search of his vehicle based on a police dog alert. Specifically, Bennett argues that the alert to his vehicle trunk by the canine, Argos, did not constitute probable cause because the dog’s reliability could not be established. We affirm, holding that law enforcement officers had a reasonable basis for relying on Argos’ alert to support probable cause for the search.

The showing the state must make to establish probable cause for a warrantless search of a vehicle based on a drug-detection dog’s alert to the vehicle involves a trial court’s determination of the legal issue of probable cause, which we review de novo. Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 699, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996); Pagan v. State, 830 [984] So.2d 792, 806 (Fla.2002). However, the reviewing court must defer to a trial court’s findings of fact as long as the factual findings are supported by competent substantial evidence. See Connor v. State, 808 So.2d 598, 608 (Fla.2001); Blalock v. State, 98 So.3d 118, 120 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012).

At the hearing on the motion to suppress, the state presented the testimony of Lieutenant Francis, supervisor of the K-9 unit, and the testimony of Deputy Dug-gins, Argos’ handler. The state also presented the records relating to Argos’ training and performance history through those two witnesses. The testimony and evidence showed that Argos had been trained to detect the odor of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. According to Sheriffs Office policy, an activity report for a police dog is generated every time the dog’s paws come out of the K-9 unit truck, and Argos had approximately 380 detection reports on file with the Sheriffs Office at the time of Bennett’s arrest. During the narcotics detection in this case, Deputy Duggins deployed Argos to conduct a “free air search” (a sweep) around Bennett’s vehicle. Argos first alerted to the driver’s door when he put his nose on the door handle and quickly sat, as he has been trained to do when he detects narcotics. Deputy Duggins and Argos continued their sweep of the vehicle, and when Argos approached the trunk area, he quickly sat as an alert.

Following the suppression hearing, the trial court denied the motion, finding that under the totality of the circumstances, law enforcement officers had a reasonable basis for relying on Argos’ alert to support probable cause for the search:

Argos was recently certified by two national organizations with strict training standards and his training and field records, although imperfect, provide a sufficient basis to establish Argos’ alert was sufficiently reliable to provide probable cause to search. Thus, the Court finds that based on the totality of the circumstances, officers had a reasonable basis for believing that Argos was reliable at the time of search, and that Argos’ alert indicated a fair probability that drugs would be found in Defendant’s vehicle.

We conclude the trial court correctly determined that law enforcement had probable cause to search Bennett’s vehicle.

In Harris v. State, 71 So.3d 756 (Fla. 2011), the Florida Supreme Court established a strict test for trial courts to apply when determining whether an officer has a reasonable basis to believe a dog’s alert is sufficiently reliable to support probable cause.1 However, this test was recently rejected by the United States Supreme Court in Florida v. Harris, - U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 1050, 185 L.Ed.2d 61, (2013), where the Court reversed the Florida Supreme Court and held that Florida’s “demand” for “an exhaustive set of records” to establish the dog’s reliability was inconsistent with the “flexible, common-sense [985] standard” of probable cause set forth in Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 239, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983).

Reviewing probable cause case law, the Supreme Court in Harris observed once again that “[t]he test for probable cause is not reducible to ‘precise definition or quantification.’ ” Id. at 1055 (quoting Maryland v. Pringle, 540 U.S. 366, 371, 124 S.Ct. 795, 157 L.Ed.2d 769 (2003)). Reiterating that a police officer has probable cause to conduct a search when the facts available support a reasonable belief that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found, the Court stated that probable cause decisions are based on commonsense evaluations as set forth in Gates:

Finely tuned standards such as proof beyond a reasonable doubt or by a preponderance of the evidence ... have no place in the [probable-cause] decision. ... All we have required is the kind of ‘fair probability’ on which reasonable and prudent [people,] not legal technicians, act.

Harris, 133 S.Ct. at 1055 (quoting Gates, 462 U.S. at 231-38, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527).

Under the Supreme Court’s “commonsensical standard” for demonstrating probable cause, courts are directed to consider the totality of the circumstances: “We have rejected rigid rules, bright-line tests, and mechanistic inquiries in favor of a more flexible, all-things-considered approach.” Id. To illustrate, the Court discussed its reasoning in Gates:

In Gates, for example, we abandoned our old test for assessing the reliability of informants’ tips because it had devolved into a “complex superstructure of evidentiary and analytical rules,” any one of which, if not complied with, would derail a finding of probable cause. 462 U.S., at 235, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527. We lamented the development of a list of “inflexible, independent requirements applicable in every case.” Id. at 230, n. 6, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527. Probable cause, we emphasized, is “a fluid concept — turning on the assessment of probabilities in particular factual contexts — not readily, or even usefully, reduced to a neat set of legal rules.” Id. at 232, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527.

Harris, 133 S.Ct. at 1056. Specifically addressing the standard for probable cause for a warrantless search of a vehicle based on a drug-detection dog’s alert, the Supreme Court concluded that “[a] sniff is up to snuff’ when “all the facts surrounding a dog’s alert, viewed through the lens of common sense, would make a reasonably prudent person think that a search would reveal contraband or evidence of a crime.” Id. at 1058.

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Bennett v. State, 111 So. 3d 983, 2013 WL 1859021, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 7284 (Fla. Ct. App. 2013).

111 So. 3d 983 (Bennett v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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