State v. Loeffler

410 So. 2d 589, 1982 Fla. App. LEXIS 19325
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedFebruary 26, 1982
DocketNos. 81-717 to 81-722 and 81-724
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 410 So. 2d 589 (State v. Loeffler) 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. Loeffler, 410 So. 2d 589, 1982 Fla. App. LEXIS 19325 (Fla. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

GRIMES, Judge.

This opinion focuses on the concept of standing to challenge allegedly illegal searches and arrests in the context of a state appeal from an order granting motions to suppress physical evidence and identifications.

The state charged Vance Loeffler, Norman DeJong and Nanette Ritter with possession of methaqualone. In addition, it charged appellees Loeffler and Ritter with sale of methaqualone, use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and carrying a concealed firearm, and it charged appellee DeJong with possession of marijuana. All three moved to suppress the evidence which formed the basis for these charges as well as evidence of their identities.

At the outset of the hearing on the motions to suppress, the state asserted that appellees’ motions were insufficient because they failed to demonstrate that appellees had standing to challenge the various searches and seizures. After considerable argument from all parties on the standing issue, the court ruled that the motions were sufficient. The hearing then proceeded, and witnesses gave the following account of the incidents which led to appellees’ arrests.

Detective Tom Ward of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department, while working undercover, met with James Schneider in a motel room at a Holiday Inn in Clear-water to arrange for the purchase of 100,-000 quaalude (methaqualone) tablets for $170,000. After counting the money proffered by Ward, Schneider made a phone call, asking for extension 131. Schneider then informed Ward that he was going to leave but would return soon with the pills. He drove away in a Mercury which belonged to his roommate John Gregarsky.

Lieutenant James Coates of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department followed Schneider from the Holiday Inn south on U.S. 19 to the Continental Inn. There he observed Schneider, Robert Smith, and possibly a third person place heavy containers in the trunk of Schneider’s car. Coates noted that Schneider had parked adjacent to room 131 of the Continental Inn which was registered in Smith’s name, and he observed both Smith and Schneider go into and come out of that room. He decided that if Schneider and Smith attempted to leave the motel, he would arrest them.

Several detectives then proceeded towards room 131. On the way there, they met Schneider and Smith coming from the room and placed them under arrest. Detectives Platt and Montgomery continued on to room 131 and knocked on the door. In response to a query from inside, Platt said that he was “Jimmy.” When the door was opened about a foot, Detective Montgomery observed quaalude pills on a table. As a result, the officers identified themselves to Mr. DeJong who had opened the door. Montgomery confronted Mr. Loeffler who was in the room and searched him, discovering a loaded, operable gun. The officers then searched Ms. Ritter who was also in the room and found that she too possessed a gun in her purse.

After arresting all five suspects, the officers seized car keys from Mr. Schneider and Mr. DeJong. Detective Montgomery searched the Mercury Monarch driven by Schneider and found open boxes which appeared to contain quaalude tablets in clear [591]*591plastic bags in the trunk. Montgomery also searched a 1979 Mercury Cougar rented to Mr. Loeffler, the keys to which he had taken from DeJong, and found three boxes identical to the type found in the Monarch.

Following the presentation of evidence and arguments of counsel, the court granted appellees’ motions to suppress all of the evidence found in the motel room and the two cars. The court also suppressed the identities of appellees finding that the officers’ entry into room 131 violated Florida’s “knock and announce” statute and thereby made appellees’ arrests illegal.

On appeal, the state contends that under recent court decisions on both the state and federal level, the trial court erred in not initially requiring appellees to demonstrate that they had standing to challenge the search of the motel room and the two automobiles. Appellees, arguing in support of the trial court’s position on standing, assert that Florida should retain the rule that a defendant charged with a possession offense has automatic standing to challenge the search and seizure which produced those materials on which the charge is based. In addition, they argue that section 901.19, Florida Statutes (1979), which contains Florida’s knock and announce rule also gives automatic standing to defendants who, like them, challenge an arrest made in violation of that statute. Upon consideration, we have concluded that the case must be returned to the trial court for a determination of appellees’ standing to challenge the search of the room and the cars as well as the entry into the motel room which led to their arrest.

We begin our discussion with the question of appellees’ standing to challenge the room and car searches. At the time the trial court made its ruling which in effect gave appellees automatic standing, it did not have the benefit of our decision in State v. Hutchinson, 404 So.2d 361 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981). There we held that the doctrines announced in the case of United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980), did in fact control in this state. In Salvucci, the United States Supreme Court rejected the automatic standing rule of Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960), and held that when a defendant charged with a possessory offense seeks to challenge the seizure of the substance which forms the basis of the charge against him, he must first show that he had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the area searched. This being the law of Florida, it is clear that the court should have required appellees to demonstrate that they had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the motel room and the two cars before it allowed them to challenge the seizure of the drugs and weapons found there. While we are not in a position to determine the issue here, we note that a question as to appellees’ reasonable expectation of privacy does exist since the motel room was registered in none of their names and there is nothing in the present record to indicate that any of them had possession or control over Mr. Schneider’s car. In addition, it is unclear as to who had control over the second car since it was apparently rented to Mr. Loeffler but its car keys were in the possession of Mr. De-Jong. These, of course, are matters which the trial court will be able to sort out on remand.1

There remains appellees’ contention that section 901.19(1), Florida Statutes (1979), gave them automatic standing to challenge the police officers’ entry into the motel room and their subsequent arrest.2 Section 901.19(1) reads as follows:

[592]*592If a peace officer fails to gain admittance after he has announced his authority and purpose in order to make an arrest either by a warrant or when authorized to make an arrest for a felony without a warrant, he may use all necessary and reasonable force to enter any building or property where the person to be arrested is or is reasonably believed to be.

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Bluebook (online)
410 So. 2d 589, 1982 Fla. App. LEXIS 19325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-loeffler-fladistctapp-1982.