Patricia R. Mock v. State of Florida

Opinion

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FOURTH DISTRICT

PATRICIA R. MOCK, Appellant,

v.

STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.

No. 4D2024-2970

[May 13, 2026]

Appeal from the County Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Phoebee Rebecca Francois, Judge; L.T. Case No. 062023CT003148A88810.

Gordon Weekes, Public Defender, and Sarah Elizabeth Wood Sandler, Assistant Public Defender, Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.

James Uthmeier, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Deborah Gail Koenig, Senior Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Appellant Patricia R. Mock appeals her conviction and sentence for driving under the influence (enhanced) following a jury trial. We affirm the judgment below in all respects but write, briefly, to address one issue. The trial court erred in “directly declaring the expert status of a witness in front of the jury,” a practice we have squarely held to be “impermissible.” Osorio v. State, 186 So. 3d 601, 610 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016), rev. denied, No. SC16– 585, 2016 WL 1749455 (Fla. May 3, 2016). However, this error was harmless here because the State has met its burden of proving “there is no reasonable possibility that the error contributed to the conviction.” State v. DiGuilio, 491 So. 2d 1129, 1135 (Fla. 1986).

Affirmed.

KUNTZ, C.J., MAY and FORST, JJ., concur.

* * *

Not final until disposition of timely-filed motion for rehearing.