State v. Georgoudiou

560 So. 2d 1241, 1990 WL 41602
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 5, 1990
Docket88-1508
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 560 So. 2d 1241 (State v. Georgoudiou) 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
State v. Georgoudiou, 560 So. 2d 1241, 1990 WL 41602 (Fla. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

560 So.2d 1241 (1990)

STATE of Florida, Appellant,
v.
John GEORGOUDIOU, Appellee.

No. 88-1508.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

April 5, 1990.
Rehearing Denied May 21, 1990.

Melvin David Stack, Deputy State Atty., Daytona Beach, for appellant.

Dan R. Warren of Judge & Warren, P.A., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

EN BANC OPINION ON MOTION FOR REHEARING[1]

COBB, Judge.

Pursuant to an en banc motion for rehearing filed by the state, we withdraw our prior opinion in this cause dated June 29, 1989, and substitute the following:

The issue on this appeal is whether the trial court erred in granting a motion to suppress contraband evidence obtained pursuant to a search warrant, executed at the residence of the appellee, John Georgoudiou. The search warrant was based upon the affidavit of one Officer Martino, an investigator with the Daytona Beach Shores Police Department. The affidavit of Martino, after specifically describing the premises to be searched, recited:

On December 3, 1986, information was obtained from a reliable source that the aforementioned residence is a source for large quantities of cocaine, cananbis [sic], and hashish.
The investigation has revealed that the occupant of this residence, John Georgoudio has been, and presently is involved in the Sale and Delivery and Use of said controlled substances at that premises. Within the past 18 hours a confidential informant has met with John *1242 Georgoudio at the aforementioned residence and arrangements were made for the purchase of 1 ounce of cocaine for a price of $1,400.00 with the purchase to be made at the residence on December 4, 1986. This conversation was taped recorded [sic] with a hidden body transmitter, and the confidential informant was under surveillance while at the residence.
The investigation has revealed that the suspect has been involved in this activity for at least two years, having been the supplier and having availability of ounces of cocaine, hashish and cannabis. The confidential informant has frequently purchased ounces of cocaine from the suspect and up to 1/4 pound of cocaine at one given time.
During the conversation at the residence located at 1507 North Atlantic Avenue, Daytona Beach, Volusia County, Florida, between the confidential informant and John Georgoudio, the confidential informant asked for a price of $1,300 for an ounce of cocaine but John Georgoudio stated, the lowest he would go is $1,400 per ounce of cocaine. The confidential informant told John Georgoudio he wanted as pure a cocaine as he could get. John Georgoudio stated it would be pure or good cocaine like the flake that he has sold to the confidential informant in the past. While the confidential informant was at the residence he saw an approximately 4 foot cannabis plant hanging in the closet to dry. Also observed in the residence a pound of hashish a cannabis beside the plant referred to above [sic]. A triple beam scale, baggies, and pipes used in the sale or ingestion of narcotics were observed in residence.
The Confidential Informant was told by John Georgoudio to come back around 4:00 P.M. tomorrow afternoon, Thursday, December 4, 1986, and he could pick up the cocaine at the 1507 North Atlantic Avenue residence.
Detective Mike Martino was present during the surveillance and monitored the conversations between John Georgoudio and the Confidential Informant which were recorded over the body transmitter on December 3, 1986.

The testimony presented at the hearing on the motion to suppress revealed that the informant, Moshoures, and a man named Vrochotoulos were under arrest for possession of illegal drugs. Neither man had given information to the police in the past. After his arrest, Moshoures gave the police a note stating that he would give information in order to get out of trouble. The information he gave implicated Georgoudiou in drug dealing, and prompted the police to send Moshoures to Georgoudiou's home equipped with a monitored body transmitter. The conversation that took place there between Georgoudiou and Moshoures resulted in the issuance and execution of the search warrant herein at issue.

The suppression hearing was conducted in three sessions, the last one taking place on September 23, 1987. Moshoures did not testify at the hearing. Nine months later, the trial court signed an order dated June 24, 1988, suppressing the evidence found at Georgoudiou's residence. To suppress that evidence, it was necessary for the trial court to conclude that the judge issuing the search warrant was misled by information in Martino's affidavit which Martino knew was false or would have known was false except for his reckless disregard of the truth. United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984); Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978). The trial court reached that conclusion based upon three factual findings:

(1) Martino's affidavit referred to the informant, Moshoures, as a "reliable source," although he had never before provided information to law enforcement. The trial court determined that therefore the state could not rely on information from Moshoures that Georgoudiou's residence was a source of drug activity, and had been one for at least two years;
(2) The tape referred to in the affidavit was "of poor quality and of little or no evidentiary value ... the language *1243 used in the affidavit for the issuance of the search warrant cannot be heard on the tape"; and
(3) The issuing magistrate was not told that the law enforcement officers had advised a confidential informant that making a case against the defendant might require illegal conduct of the informant.

We must consider these three findings in light of the record. The trial court's first finding — i.e., Michael Moshoures had never provided law enforcement with information in the past — is irrelevant. The affidavit for the search warrant was based on what Martino heard Georgoudiou say through the monitor transmitter, not on what Moshoures told Martino. Martino's (not Moshoures') reliability was the basis for the issuance of the search warrant. Moreover, an informant's information may provide its own indicia of reliability. State v. Vanwinkle, 444 So.2d 1005 (Fla. 5th DCA), review denied, 450 So.2d 489 (Fla. 1984). Controlled buys were upheld as the basis for probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant in State v. Moise, 522 So.2d 1023 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988), and State v. Cohen, 442 So.2d 346 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983). Although Martino's affidavit refers to Moshoures as a "reliable source," which the tape recorded conversation apparently confirmed, the affidavit never states that Moshoures had provided information in the past.

The real issue is the validity of the trial judge's determination that Martino played fast and loose with the truth in his affidavit, a determination purportedly based upon the finding that the tape introduced in evidence was inaudible. At the suppression hearing defense counsel did not contend that the monitored tape recording of the conversation between Georgoudiou and Moshoures was inaudible.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
560 So. 2d 1241, 1990 WL 41602, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-georgoudiou-fladistctapp-1990.