State v. Burns

661 So. 2d 842, 20 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D 1942
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided August 25, 1995·No. 94-457·Published·Cited by 24 cases

Opinion

661 So.2d 842 (1995)

STATE of Florida, Appellant,
v.
William E. BURNS, Appellee.

No. 94-457.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

August 25, 1995.

*843 Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Kristen L. Davenport, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.

Herbert H. Hall, Jr., Winter Garden, for Appellee.

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

GOSHORN, Judge.

We deny Burns's motion for rehearing. We withdraw our opinion issued March 31, 1995 and substitute the following opinion.

The State appeals from a suppression order entered by the county court. This court accepted jurisdiction pursuant to Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.160(e)(2) as a matter certified to be of great public importance because individual Orange County judges were issuing conflicting rulings on the issues presented.

THE FACTS

Deputy Roberta Almadova, seeing William E. Burns's vehicle make a wide turn and weave, turned on her overhead red and blue lights and pulled Burns's vehicle over. She intended to ticket him for failure to maintain a single lane. She asked him to please exit his vehicle and to keep his hands out of his pockets. Burns had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, red, bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. Burns asked several times to be allowed to go because he was only just around the corner from his house. The deputy refused his requests and initiated field sobriety tests. At the time the deputy started the field sobriety tests, the deputy believed she had probable cause to arrest Burns for DUI. She did not read Burns his Miranda rights before beginning the tests.

Burns was asked (1) to recite the alphabet non-rhythmically while standing with his feet together, hands at his side and head back, (2) to stand on one leg and count, (3) to walk heel to toe nine steps and (4) to put his finger to his nose. Burns was unable to perform the first three tests and refused to take the finger to nose test. Burns was arrested for DUI eleven minutes after he was stopped.

Deputy Almadova drove Burns to the South Orange Blossom Trail testing center, which has small rooms for videotaping and breath testing. Burns refused to repeat the field sobriety tests on camera and refused the breath test. After Burns's refusals, the deputy read Burns his Miranda rights off a form. Burns signed the form and invoked his rights.

Burns moved to suppress his statements, the field sobriety tests and the fact of his refusals to submit to testing. Burns testified at the suppression hearing that he stopped in response to the flashing lights and believed that he had no choice but to stop. At the testing center, Burns refused to repeat the tests while being videotaped because he knew he had not done the tests properly and did not want to repeat them. He was distracted by having to do more than one thing at a time, i.e., count while standing on one leg. Burns was videotaped while answering questions regarding his name, age, address, and date of birth, which information had already been given to the deputy. He believed he was asked these questions again in an effort to "trip him up." The officers did not make notes of what he said. Burns further testified that had he been read his rights at the scene of the stop, he would have *844 asked for an attorney then. He never did ask for an attorney.

The county court suppressed statements by Burns at the roadside, including his recitation of the alphabet and counting, the videotape taken at the testing center and evidence of Burns's refusal to perform all tests. The State appeals. We affirm in part and reverse in part for the reasons hereinafter set forth.

ROADSIDE TESTS

The trial court found Burns was in custody at the point he was asked to exit his vehicle and provide his license and registration to the deputy and that accordingly, Burns should have been advised of his Miranda rights prior to being asked to perform the field sobriety tests. Because Burns had not been Mirandized, the court suppressed Burns's roadside statements made in response to the deputy's instructions, including Burns's recitation of the ABC's and his counting.

In resolving this issue, we first must determine if Burns was legally in custody at the roadside because Miranda warnings are required only when a defendant is subjected to custodial interrogation.[1]See Roberts v. United States, 445 U.S. 552, 560, 100 S.Ct. 1358, 1364, 63 L.Ed.2d 622 (1980); Arbelaez v. State, 626 So.2d 169 (Fla. 1993), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 114 S.Ct. 2123, 128 L.Ed.2d 678 (1994); Traylor v. State, 596 So.2d 957 (Fla. 1992).

The facts found by the trial court show nothing more than a routine traffic stop. Burns was stopped and was asked for his license and registration and to perform field sobriety tests. The stop was short (eleven minutes), occurred in a public area, only one officer was present, and the tests were simple. These factors are identical to those cited by the Court in Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 442, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 3151, 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984) in holding that "treatment of this sort cannot fairly be characterized as the functional equivalent of formal arrest." The Court determined that generally the roadside questioning of a motorist pursuant to a routine traffic stop does not constitute custodial interrogation, but did not adopt a per se rule in this regard. Instead, the Court left to the trial courts the determination whether a detained motorist "thereafter is subjected to treatment that renders him `in custody' ..." entitling him to the protections afforded by Miranda. 468 U.S. at 440, 104 S.Ct. at 3150.[2]See also Pennsylvania v. Bruder, 488 U.S. 9, 109 S.Ct. 205, 102 L.Ed.2d 172 (1988) (holding that where defendant was subjected to an ordinary traffic stop, asked a "modest" number of questions, and requested to perform a simple balancing test, defendant was not in custody for purposes of Miranda).

Here, there are no factors which would take this case outside the holding in Berkemer. The trial court's finding that Burns reasonably believed his freedom of action was "curtailed to a degree associated with actual arrest" was erroneous as a matter of law. While his freedom of action was curtailed, as it is in any detention, Burns did not bring forth any evidence that he was subjected to any restraints comparable to those found in a formal arrest. See Traylor. Additionally, Burns's testimony to the effect that prior to the roadside tests, he requested to be allowed to go because he was just around the corner from his residence is not determinative. The deputy could properly have refused the request regardless of whether Burns was subject to a full custodial arrest or a temporary detention.

*845 Burns, citing Traylor v. State, 596 So.2d 957 (Fla. 1992), argues that the federal custody cases are inapplicable because Florida has expanded the definition of custody under the Florida Constitution. Traylor does contain a lengthy discourse on federalism and the ability of states to more strictly restrain state action than is imposed under the Federal Constitution. However, what Traylor also does is to define custody under the Florid

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State v. Burns, 661 So. 2d 842, 20 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D 1942 (Fla. Ct. App. 1995).

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