STATE OF FLORIDA v. BRYAN ALLEN REPPLE

District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided June 14, 2024·No. 2023-1448·Published

Opinion

SIXTH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL STATE OF FLORIDA

Case No. 6D23-1448

Lower Tribunal No. 2021-CT-000090-E

STATE OF FLORIDA,

Appellant,

v.

BRYAN ALLEN REPPLE,

Appellee.

Appeal from the County Court for Orange County.

Eric H. DuBois, Judge.

June 14, 2024

NARDELLA, J.

The State appeals an order granting Bryan Allen Repple’s (“Defendant”)

motion to suppress his breath test results. 1 Abiding by the long-standing rule that an appellant has the burden of demonstrating error on appeal and finding that the State has not met this burden, we affirm the trial court’s order.

1 This case was transferred from the Fifth District Court of Appeal to this Court on January 1, 2023.

I.

At approximately 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, Officer Andrew Moore of the Maitland Police Department pulled Defendant over for speeding. The traffic offense and subsequent stop occurred inside Maitland’s city limits, which lie within Orange County, Florida. While speaking with Defendant, Officer Moore smelled the odor of alcohol, heard Defendant slur his speech, and saw Defendant’s eyes were glassy and bloodshot. Based on these observations, fellow Maitland police officer Frank Banos began a driving under the influence (“DUI”) investigation. With Defendant’s consent, Officer Banos performed three field sobriety exercises, during which Defendant exhibited further signs of impairment. As a result, Officer Banos arrested Defendant for DUI.

Following the arrest, Officer Banos transported Defendant out of Maitland’s city limits to a breath test facility in Orange County. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office operates the facility, which was staffed that day by a single civilian technician. Once at the facility, Officer Banos accompanied Defendant and the technician into the testing room. There, Officer Banos read Defendant the implied consent warning in accordance with section 316.1932, Florida Statutes (2021).2

2 The warning given by the law enforcement officer must inform the individual of the following information:

The person shall be told that his or her failure to submit to any lawful test of his or her breath will result in the suspension of the person’s

After reading the warning, Officer Banos asked Defendant if he consented to the breath test. Defendant did. The test yielded a breath alcohol content exceeding the legal limit, leading the State to charge Defendant with DUI.

Before trial, Defendant moved to suppress the breath test results, arguing that Officer Banos unlawfully asserted his official authority because he acted outside of his territorial jurisdiction to obtain evidence not available to a private citizen using his or her own senses. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court agreed with Defendant and suppressed the breath test results. The State timely appealed this ruling and raises a single argument for this Court’s consideration.

The State’s sole argument on appeal is that a municipal officer may, outside his or her territorial jurisdiction, assert official authority to gather evidence not otherwise obtainable by a private citizen when the subject matter of the investigation

privilege to operate a motor vehicle for a period of 1 year for a first refusal, or for a period of 18 months if the driving privilege of such person has been previously suspended or if he or she has previously been fined under s. 327.35215 as a result of a refusal to submit to a test or tests required under this chapter or chapter 327, and shall also be told that if he or she refuses to submit to a lawful test of his or her breath and his or her driving privilege has been previously suspended or if he or she has previously been fined under s. 327.35215 for a prior refusal to submit to a lawful test of his or her breath, urine, or blood as required under this chapter or chapter 327, he or she commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083, in addition to any other penalties provided by law.

§ 316.1932(1)(a)1.a., Fla. Stat. (2021).

originated within the officer’s territorial jurisdiction. Applying that general premise to the facts of this case, the State contends that because the DUI investigation began in Maitland, a Maitland municipal police officer had the power to use his official authority, outside the city limits of Maitland, to read Defendant the implied consent warning in accordance with section 316.1932 to obtain a breath test. For the following reasons, and after conducting a de novo review 3 of the trial court’s suppression ruling, we disagree with both the premise of the State’s argument and the reasoning of our sister courts that have recognized such extraterritorial police powers not authorized by the Legislature. Consequently, we find that the State has failed to demonstrate that the trial court erred when it suppressed evidence obtained from a search performed outside the territorial boundaries of the municipal officer’s jurisdiction.

II.

When an officer obtains evidence by using the appearance of official power, in a jurisdiction where the officer has no power, the officer is said to act under the “color of office.” See State v. Stouffer, 248 So. 3d 1165, 1168 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018)

3 When the facts relevant to an order granting a motion to suppress are undisputed, as is the case here, the Court conducts a de novo review of the trial court’s suppression ruling. Everett v. State, 893 So. 2d 1278, 1282–83 (Fla. 2004); State v. Torres, 350 So. 3d 421, 422 (Fla. 5th DCA 2022); Bauman v. State, 290 So. 3d 147, 148 (Fla. 2d DCA 2020); State v. Furr, 723 So. 2d 842, 844 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998).

(citing State v. Phoenix, 428 So. 2d 262, 266 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982) approved, 455 So. 2d 1024 (Fla. 1984)). The first known use of this expression comes from a thirteenth century English statute prohibiting King Edward’s sheriffs from acting without authority. 4 Steven L. Winter, The Meaning of “Under Color of Law”, 91 Mich. L. Rev. 323, 327 (1992). As explained by Professor Steven Winter, at that time, the King’s officers and agents would have worn the King’s coat of arms, giving their conduct, including acts not sanctioned by the King, “all the trappings and indicia of an official act.” Id. at 396.

By the nineteenth century, the expression was well-established in American jurisprudence and broadly referred to the illegal or unauthorized actions of government officials, often wearing a uniform or carrying a badge, which allowed their unlawful conduct to have “the guise or appearance of authority.” Id.; see generally City of Lowell v. Parker, 51 Mass. (10 Met.) 309, 313–14 (1845) (“He was an officer, had authority to attach goods . . . on a suitable writ, professed to have such process, and thereupon took the plaintiff’s goods . . . . He therefore took the goods colore official, and though he had no sufficient warrant for taking them, yet

4 The English statute provided “[t]hat no Escheator, Sheriff, nor other Bailiff of the King, by Colour of his Office, without special Warrant, or Commandment, or Authority certain pertaining to his Office, disseise any Man of his Freehold, nor of any Thing belonging to his Freehold.” 3 Edw. 1, ch. 24 (1275) (Eng.), reprinted in 1 STATUTES AT LARGE 92–93 (Danby Pickering ed., 1762).

he is responsible to third persons, because such taking was a breach of his official duty.”); Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 170 (1803) (“If one of the heads of departments commits any illegal act, under color of his office, by which an individual sustains an injury, it cannot be pretended that his office alone exempts him from being sued in the ordinary mode of proceeding, and being compelled to obey the judgment of the law.”). And that is how the expression was first used in Florida jurisprudence.

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