Singletary v. State

290 So. 2d 116
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 6, 1974
Docket73-945
StatusPublished
Cited by54 cases

This text of 290 So. 2d 116 (Singletary v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Singletary v. State, 290 So. 2d 116 (Fla. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

290 So.2d 116 (1974)

John Oley SINGLETARY, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 73-945.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

February 15, 1974.
Question Certified March 6, 1974.

*117 Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, Kenneth Scherer and Bruce J. Daniels, Asst. Public Defenders, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Stephen R. Koons, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

COWART, JOE A., Jr., Associate Judge.

Appellant claims the trial judge erred in revoking his probation because due process requires and appellant was denied a preliminary hearing to determine if there was probable cause to believe he had violated his probation and a separate final hearing as to whether his probation should be revoked. Appellant also claims the legally admissible evidence does not support the finding that he violated his probation conditions; that the identity of an informant should have been revealed, and that he was entitled to a jury trial on the issue of identity.

Appellant's first point is based on Morrissey v. Brewer, 1972, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S. *118 Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484, and Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 1973, 411 U.S. 778, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 36 L.Ed.2d 656. Morrissey was a parolee in Iowa, a state in which no law required a hearing before a parole could be revoked. Morrissey was simply arrested at his parole officer's direction and held in a county jail until the Board of Parole revoked his parole after a review of the parole officer's written report. The Supreme Court held that federal procedural due process requires a hearing, which can be informal, before a state parole revocation and that, (1) where state statutes do not require such a parole revocation hearing, and (2) where there is a substantial time lag between arrest and final determination by the parole board, and (3) where the parolee is arrested at a place distant from the state institution to which he may be returned before the final revocation decision is made, given these factors, due process also requires a minimal inquiry (preliminary hearing) as promptly as convenient after arrest and at or near the place of arrest or place of the alleged violation. It was further held that this hearing to determine probable cause to believe the parolee had committed acts violating his parole could be held before any neutral and detached independent hearing officer, even a parole officer other than the one recommending revocation. Other minimal requirements for such an initial hearing are detailed in the opinion.

In Gagnon v. Scarpelli, supra, in Wisconsin, in which no law required a probation revocation hearing, Scarpelli was sentenced to prison, but the sentence was suspended and he was placed on probation and permitted to reside in Illinois. The day after Scarpelli was accepted for supervision in Illinois, he was apprehended in the process of a house burglary. The Wisconsin Department, apparently an administrative agency, forthwith revoked probation without a hearing and Scarpelli was taken directly to prison in Wisconsin to begin serving his sentence. The Supreme Court held that probation, where sentence has been imposed, is constitutionally indistinguishable from parole and that Scarpelli was entitled to a preliminary and a final revocation hearing as specified in Morrissey v. Brewer.

In Florida there are three separate procedures for arresting and holding a probationer as prelude to a probation revocation hearing. First, F.S. Section 948.06, F.S.A., authorizes any probation supervisor, upon reasonable ground to believe a violation has occurred, to arrest a probationer without a warrant, and forthwith return him to the court granting probation. This is rarely, if ever, done. The second and most usual way that revocation proceedings are commenced in Florida is by an affidavit[1] being presented to a committing magistrate,[2] who, after finding from it and other proof presented,[3] that there is reasonable ground to believe the probationer has violated his probation in a material respect, issues a special arrest warrant. The judge issuing the warrant can endorse thereon the amount of bail, if any.[4] The *119 probationer, when arrested, is either taken forthwith before the court granting such probation, to whom the warrant is returnable,[5] or, pursuant to RCrP Rule 3.130(b)(1), 33 F.S.A., he is taken before a judicial officer, a County Judge, within 24 hours of his arrest, for a First Appearance hearing where the County Judge, as magistrate, immediately informs him of the nature and cause of the accusation against him and provides him with a copy thereof[6] [RCrP Rule 3.130(b)(2)]. He is advised of his right against self-incrimination, and that means will be provided for him to communicate with his counsel, his family, or his friends. Counsel is then appointed for him if he desires, but is financially unable to afford, counsel.[7] In some judicial circuits, the magistrate considers admitting the accused probationer to bail or releasing him on his own recognizance,[8] while in other circuits, if the probation was granted in the Circuit Court, the County Judge does not set bail[9] but forthwith binds the accused over for further proceedings before "the court granting such probation",[10] where the Circuit Judge, as arraignment procedure, again advises the accused of the charge[11] and advises him he is entitled "to be fully[12] heard on his own behalf in person or by counsel."[13] If the violation is not admitted, the Circuit Judge considers releasing him from confinement with or without bail and sets a final hearing "as soon as may be practicable".[14] A third probation violation procedure was provided by the passage in 1972[15] of F.S. Section 949.10-949.12, F.S.A., which provides for an automatic bailess[16] temporary revocation when a person on probation as to a felony is arrested on a subsequent felony charge.[17] The statute specifically requires *120 a revocation hearing within 10 days,[18] otherwise the probationer is immediately released from incarceration on the temporary revocation.

Morrissey and Gagnon prescribe a minimal constitutional due process hearing for states that require no hearing before parole and probation is revoked and do not relate to Florida, which is recognized in Morrissey, Footnote 15, as being one of thirty states requiring hearings before revocation. Florida in arresting a probationer upon warrant issued by a judicial officer upon probable cause, supported by affidavit, has adopted a procedure similar to that provided by both the state and federal constitutions for the search and seizure and arrest of free unrestricted citizens. A probationer cannot be entitled to more. We hold that Florida's usual judicial warrant procedure is constitutionally equal or superior to the first "minimal inquiry" promulgated in Morrissey. Both are safeguards against the probationer being arbitrarily and unfairly deprived of his conditional liberty by arrest on unverified facts and confinement pending a revocation hearing. The court in Morrissey insisted it had no thought to create a formal or inflexible structure for revocation procedures.[19]

In Oaks v. Wainwright, Fla. S.Ct. Case No.

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Bluebook (online)
290 So. 2d 116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/singletary-v-state-fladistctapp-1974.