State v. Cabrera & Socarras

17 Fla. Supp. 2d 105
CourtCircuit Court for the Judicial Circuits of Florida
DecidedDecember 16, 1985
DocketCase No. 84-6293 (02-Bloom)
StatusPublished

This text of 17 Fla. Supp. 2d 105 (State v. Cabrera & Socarras) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Circuit Court for the Judicial Circuits 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. Cabrera & Socarras, 17 Fla. Supp. 2d 105 (Fla. Super. Ct. 1985).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

PHILIP BLOOM, Circuit Judge.

THIS CAUSE having duly come on to be heard before this Honorable Court on October 16, 1985, pursuant to the Motions by defendants, Vicente Gomez Socarras and Alejandro Cabrera, to Dismiss for Governmental Misconduct and Entrapment As a Matter of Law and Supplement to Motion to Dismiss; and upon this Court having had the [106]*106opportunity to examine, review and analyze the contents of the defendants’ motions, all exhibits, pleadings, documents and sworn depositions filed in the above-styled cause, applicable State and Federal law; and upon hearing argument and stipulation of counsel, including that the whereabouts of informant Orlando Gorra (or Gora) is not known and that the State cannot call him as a witness in this cause, and after allowing both the State and defense an opportunity to present any applicable testimony and/or evidence, and being otherwise fully advised in the premises, this Court hereby makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law:

1. That the defendant, Alejandro Cabrera, and codefendant, Vicente Socarras, were charged in an information filed on April 5, 1984 with conspiracy to sell controlled substance and trafficking in cocaine in excess of 400 grams by selling, manufacturing or delivering cocaine in violation of Section 893.135 of the Florida Statutes.

2. On the 12th of October, 1985, Assistant Public Defender, Diane V. Ward, filed with this Court a Motion to Dismiss for Prosecutorial/ Government Misconduct, Supplement to Motion to Dismiss and Supplement to Appendix. Said motions had attached numerous exhibits, citations and excerpts of sworn depositions. Codefendant, Cabrera, filed a Motion to Adopt the aforesaid motion on the 16th day of October, 1985, and in addition, filed a Sworn Motion to Dismiss for Prosecutorial Misconduct and Entrapment As a Matter of Law. Defendant Socarras incorporated by reference his Affidavit filed on December 20, 1984 with his Motion to Disclose Confidential Informant. The facts in said affidavit were again sworn to by the defendant in open Court on October 21, 1985.

3. That this Court, after motions of both defendants, hereby takes judicial notice of all previous judicial orders, excerpts of depositions, excerpts of in-camera hearings, agreements between the confidential informant and the Hialeah Police Department, the deposition of Orlando Gorra taken in the above-styled case on July 31, 1985, and all other items listed in the index to appendix filed in support of the Motion by defendant Socarras to Dismiss and supplements thereto. The Court, as a matter of judicial economy, recognizes after inquiry thereto and its familiarity with this and related proceedings, that whatever matters that were not judicially recognizable as a matter of public record could easily have been otherwise produced by counsel. Therefore, all matters contained in the index to appendix this Court considers as being before the Court on the instant motions.

4. This Court makes a finding of fact that defendant, Alejandro [107]*107Cabrera, has standing to raise the Motion to Dismiss for Prosecutorial Misconduct and Entrapment As a Matter of Law. Cabrera’s standing is established by unrefuted sworn statements that Cabrera was personally and directly pressured by the confidential informant into participating in the delivery of the cocaine. This Court further finds that defendant Cabrera was present during pressures imposed upon codefendant Socarras by the confidential informant and further that additional pressures were communicated to defendant Cabrera by codefendant Socarras thereby establishing standing to complain of the governmental misconduct.

5. That the defendants, Socarras and Cabrera, were arrested and charged solely as a result of their contact with a confidential informant identified as Orlando Gorra. The arrests were the result of pressures initiated by Gorra on both defendants. Gorra was at all times relevant employed full-time as an agent of the Hialeah Police Department. The reasons for Gorra’s zeal became apparent to this Court and is outlined below.

6. This case is concerned with informants and entrapment and their effect on the Constitutional and procedural rights of an accused. The use of informants by the police is sanctioned in law and is a necessary tool in the fight against crime by law enforcement authorities. In today’s complex society every possible means of apprehending criminals should be permitted so long as individual rights are not impaired. However, difficulty exists in striking a balance in those instances where the informant, who is closely associated with the police or police activity (thereby constituting governmental conduct), may induce an innocent individual to commit a criminal act which that individual did not have a proclivity or predisposition to otherwise perform.

“Society is at war with the criminal classes, and courts have uniformly held that in waging this warfare the forces of prevention and detention may use traps, decoys and deception to obtain evidence of crime.” Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435 at pp. 453-54.

Since the police are dealing with the criminal element, usually an informant by his very nature is of that element. An informant is not usually a priest, rabbi or nun. A defendánt will complain that the informant is unworthy of belief and reliability. However, without the informant, many areas of crime could not be detected, uncovered or prosecuted, and therefore, informants may at the very least be a necessary law enforcement tool in today’s world.

7. Specifically, this informant, Orlando Gorra, was employed full-[108]*108time with the Hialeah Police Department since either August, 1983 or January, 1984 with such employment and resulting compensation comprising and constituting the major, if not sole, portion of his income, support and maintenance for himself and his family. For a period of eight (8) months, from January, 1984 through August, 1984, Orlando Gorra initiated and worked approximately 26 cases for the Hialeah Police Department wherein the defendants in each instance according to Gorra initiated the approach or contact with Gorra to deal in illegal drugs; all of which cases resulted in the seizure of more than 20 kilograms of cocaine by the Hialeah Police Department.

8. Prior to becoming employed as an informant with the Hialeah Police Department, Gorra admitted he had never been approached by anyone to buy or sell drugs over a period of the previous five (5) years.

9. After accepting employment with the Hialeah Police Department, the majority, if not all, of the people that Gorra set up for arrest by the City of Hialeah Police Department were people he had previously known in Cuba. Mr. Gorra has indicated that each of these individuals was not sought out by him but instead approached him on the street. After reviewing the evidence in this case and the matters about which this Court takes judicial notice, this Court makes a specific finding of fact that this is not a truthful statement by Mr. Gorra and that this Court believes that Mr. Gorra in fact sought out most, if not all, of the individuals that were subsequently arrested in his “investigations.”

10. Clearly, Mr. Gorra’s employment and investigative “techniques” are motivated solely by financial greed. From January 28th, 1984 through July 26, 1984 as the records of the Hialeah Police Department reflect, Mr.

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Related

Sorrells v. United States
287 U.S. 435 (Supreme Court, 1932)
State v. Glosson
462 So. 2d 1082 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1985)
Cruz v. State
465 So. 2d 516 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1985)
State v. Glosson
441 So. 2d 1178 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1983)
Aldazabal v. State
471 So. 2d 639 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1985)
State v. Jones
247 So. 2d 342 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1971)

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Bluebook (online)
17 Fla. Supp. 2d 105, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cabrera-socarras-flacirct-1985.