State v. Cable

51 So. 3d 434, 35 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 705, 2010 Fla. LEXIS 2084, 2010 WL 4977491
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedDecember 9, 2010
DocketNo. SC09-1684
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 51 So. 3d 434 (State v. Cable) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Cable, 51 So. 3d 434, 35 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 705, 2010 Fla. LEXIS 2084, 2010 WL 4977491 (Fla. 2010).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

This case is before the Court for review of the decision of the Second District Court of Appeal in Cable v. State, 18 So.3d 37 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009), regarding a violation of Florida’s knock-and-announce statute. In its decision the district court ruled upon the following question, which the court certified to be of great public importance:

IN VIEW OF THE ABROGATION OF THE EXCLUSIONARY RULE FOR FOURTH AMENDMENT KNOCK-AND-ANNOUNCE VIOLATIONS, SHOULD THE JUDICIAL REMEDY OF EXCLUSION OF EVIDENCE BE APPLIED FOR VIOLATIONS OF FLORIDA’S STATUTORY KNOCK-AND-ANNOUNCE PROVISIONS.

Id. at 39-40. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.

This certified question asks whether the recent United States Supreme Court decision in Hudson v. Michigan, 547 U.S. 586, 126 S.Ct. 2159, 165 L.Ed.2d 56 (2006), requires the Court to recede from its 1964 opinion in Benefield v. State, 160 So.2d 706 (Fla.1964), in which this Court held that a violation of Florida’s knock-and-announce statute vitiated the ensuing arrest and required the suppression of the evidence obtained in connection with the arrest. We conclude that because the remedy of exclusion in Benefield was based on a violation of Florida’s knock-and-announce statute, and not the Fourth Amendment, Hudson does not mandate that we recede from Benefield. Accordingly, we approve the decision of the Second District.

FACTS

On May 15, 2007, at 6:37 a.m., Polk County Sheriffs Office Deputy Richard Lawrence was checking vehicle license tags in the parking lot of the Lake Wales Inn. Deputy Lawrence was in uniform and was in a marked Sheriffs Office vehicle. Deputy Lawrence recognized a vehicle that he had seen at a drug house the day prior and ran the license tag number. He found that it was registered to respondent Kathy Jo Cable. Upon running a check on Cable, Deputy Lawrence discovered that Cable had an outstanding Polk County arrest warrant for failure to appear on a charge of possession of methamphetamine. Deputy Lawrence contacted the motel manager and learned that Cable and her husband were staying at the motel.

After returning to his vehicle, Deputy Lawrence observed R.E., later identified as Cable’s sixteen-year-old son, exit the motel room. Deputy Lawrence initiated contact with R.E. and directed R.E. to go back to the motel room and “get his mother up” because Deputy Lawrence needed to speak with her. Deputy Lawrence did not inform R.E. about the outstanding warrant because he believed this information might prompt Cable to attempt a “back door” escape. After Deputy Lawrence waited approximately fifteen minutes, neither Cable nor R.E. came outside, so Deputy Lawrence knocked on the door of Cable’s motel room. Since there was no answer, Deputy Lawrence knocked again and announced “Sheriffs Office” and “come to the door.” Deputy Lawrence did not announce his purpose for being there — that he had a warrant for Cable’s arrest.

Deputy Lawrence received no answer after announcing his authority and re[436]*436questing that the occupants come to the door. After waiting a few minutes with still no response, Deputy Lawrence opened the unlocked door and entered the motel room. Inside, he found Cable, who was unresponsive on the bed, her husband, R.E., and two other boys. Deputy Lawrence woke Cable, notified her that he had a warrant for her arrest, and placed her in custody. A search of Cable’s person incident to the arrest revealed methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

Cable was charged by information with trafficking in methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. She filed a motion to suppress the evidence against her on the ground that the warrant for her arrest was illegally executed in violation of section 901.19, Florida Statutes (2005)— Florida’s statute requiring police to announce their authority and purpose before entering a building to arrest an individual. Specifically, she argued that Deputy Lawrence knocked and announced his presence and authority, but failed to announce his purpose before entering the motel room in which she was staying — a fact conceded by the State in this case. The trial court denied the motion after an evidentiary hearing. The trial court concluded in pertinent part:

Defendant contends that the Deputy Sheriff failed to announce his purpose for being there when knocking on the door, and therefore, the entry and arrest were unlawful. The Court disagrees.
Pursuant to V.P.S. v. State, 816 So.2d 801 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002), arrest warrants carry with them the limited authority to enter a dwelling when there is reason to believe that the person is within. Florida also recognizes a “substantial compliance” standard for arrest statutes. Conti v. State, 540 So.2d 934 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989). In accordance with these standards, and in light of all of the attendant facts and circumstances, the Court holds that there was, at a minimum, substantial compliance on the part of the officer and lawful authority to enter the room to arrest the Defendant.
Furthermore, in Hudson v. Michigan [547 U.S. 586], 126 S.Ct. 2159 [165 L.Ed.2d 56] (2006), a case in which it was undisputed that the knock and announce statute was violated, the United States Supreme Court held that, “exclusion [of the evidence] may not be premised on the mere fact that a constitutional violation was a ‘but-for’ cause of obtaining evidence.”

Id. at 2164.

Subsequently, Cable entered into a negotiated nolo contendere plea to the trafficking charge in exchange for a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in prison, reserving the right to appeal the denial of her motion to suppress. The State nolle prossed the paraphernalia charge. Cable was then sentenced pursuant to the plea agreement, and she appealed to the Second District.

The Second District reversed, concluding that the trial court erred in denying Cable’s motion to suppress. Cable, 18 So.3d at 38-39. The district court reasoned that “by failing to announce his purpose before entering the motel room, the officer acted in violation of section 901.19(1).” Id. at 38. In reaching this conclusion, the Second District relied on Benefield but noted that the facts in Bene-field regarding statutory violations by police were extreme. The district court then explained that it had considered less extreme circumstances in Urquhart v. State, 211 So.2d 79 (Fla. 2d DCA 1968):

Relying on Benefield, we held that an officer failed to comply with the provisions of the statute when he “did not announce his purpose and he did not wait until he was refused admittance [437]*437before pushing open the door.” Urquhart, 211 So.2d at 83. We also held that the officer’s failure to announce his purpose made “the subsequent arrest and incidental search invalid and any evidence seized as a result thereof ... inadmissible.” Id.

Cable, 18 So.3d at 38-39. The Second District found the facts in Cable to be indistinguishable from those in Urquhart. Id. at 39.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
51 So. 3d 434, 35 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 705, 2010 Fla. LEXIS 2084, 2010 WL 4977491, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cable-fla-2010.