State v. Quesada

3 Fla. Supp. 2d 28
CourtCircuit Court for the Judicial Circuits of Florida
DecidedSeptember 16, 1982
DocketNo. 81-17247D-FF, 81-17250
StatusPublished

This text of 3 Fla. Supp. 2d 28 (State v. Quesada) 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. Quesada, 3 Fla. Supp. 2d 28 (Fla. Super. Ct. 1982).

Opinion

GERALD KOGAN, Circuit Judge

This cause came on to be heard pursuant to defendant’s motions to suppress evidence gathered by court authorized electronic surveillance. This Court held an evidentiary hearing lasting more than eight full weeks and heard legal argument lasting many hours. This Court has reviewed all of the numerous exhibits and other evidence in this case. The Court has read all legal memoranda of counsel submitted by all parties consisting of almost two hundred legal sized pages and has reviewed the authorities cited therein. The Court has, in addition, researched the law on all of the various issues raised.

Prior to his Court setting forth its findings, the Court makes the following observations concerning the interception of private communications between individuals who have no desire that these conversations be overhead by unauthorized persons.

The Constitutions of the United States and the State of Florida stand as a bulwark against governmental intrusion into the private lives of our citizens. The greatest intrusion into the private lives of our citizens in the opinion of this Court, is the unwarranted interception of private conversations, whether over the telephone or in one’s home.

In order to safeguard these private conversations from improper governmental eavesdropping, the State of Florida adopted Chapter 934 of the Florida Statutes. This chapter sets up strict requirements which must be adhered to so that an individual’s right to privacy will not be erroded. With this premise in mind, the Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law:

Constitutionality of Chapter 934 Of The Florida Statutes

The courts of this State have addressed the constitutionality of Chapter 934. That chapter has been found to be constitutional by every court that has considered the issue. See United States v. Sklaroff, 506 F.2d 837 (5th Cir. 1975), cert. den., 423 U.S. 874 (1975).

[30]*30Even though the Florida constitution contains a specific right to privacy this does not make Chapter 934 unconstitutional. The statute provides sufficient guidelines to ensure that wiretaps are conducted only for the limited purpose of criminal investigation where necessary. Unlike the New York Statute found unconstitutional in Berger v. New York, the Florida Statute requires a new showing of probable cause to continue surveillance beyond the maximum 30 day period. The Florida statute, patterned after Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C. §2510-2520, informs the police, the state attorney and the courts of exactly what must be done to comply with the statute. Strict compliance with these requirements ensures the constitutionality of Chapter 934.

This Court finds that on its face Chaper 934 is constitutional under both the constitutions of the United States and the State of Florida.

However, the Court finds that in this case, not only has there been lack of strict compliance with the requirements of the statute but also there has been an almost total disregard for the safeguards that the legislature has imposed. These statutory violations go to the very heart of the statutory scheme employed to prevent abuse. These violations go contrary to the purpose behind the statute and therefore make the interceptions unlawful as will be explained further in other parts of this Order. This Court, though reluctant to do so, must suppress all of the evidence derived from the Ortega wire interceptions, the Quesada wire interceptions and the Quesada room bug.

State Attorney Special Investigators

The investigations in this case were conducted in the City of Miami and in the City of Coral Gables. One of the issues raised is the authority of the City of Miami Police Department to conduct this investigation outside their jurisdiction without meeting the requirements of Fla. Stat. 27.251.

Section 27.251 (Supp. 1978) authorizes the appointment of municipal police officers for some purposes as special investigators for the State Attorney, and provides for the posting of a bond and the taking of an oath of office, in order to investigate in another municipality. See Fla. Stat. §27.255(4). The defendants argue that since the bonds were not posted before the investigation began, the police were acting outside their official capacity and therefore all their actions are null and void. Stinton v. State, 80 So. 506 (Fla. 1918).

The case law of this state supports the position that a police officer may conduct investigations outside the city limits where the subject matter of the investigation originated inside the city limits. State v. [31]*31Chapman, 376 So.2d 262 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1979), cert. den., 386. Unlike Wilson v. State, 403 So.2d 983 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980), where there was no evidence in the record of any action taken by the police inside the city limits, in this case, the investigation did begin in the City of Miami. The initial meetings between the confidential informant and the City of Miami police and the first party consent call both occurred in the City of Miami.

Since the investigation in this case began within the city limits of Miami, the City of Miami police had the authority to continue their investigation outside the city limits. Parker v. State, 362 So.2d 1033 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976).

However, while the City of Miami police officers may conduct an investigation in this manner, there is a more important issue raised. Can municipal police officers (Coral Gables and Miami), act in the official capacities as special State Attorney’s Investigators without having been properly qualified as such under Fla. Stat. 27.251 and 27.255. This Court believes that they cannot.

This Court finds that while officers of Miami and Coral Gables were appointed by State Attorney Janet Reno and took the oath of office they failed to post the bond as required by law. Until that bond was posted they could not act as special investigators for the State Attorney’s Office. None of these bonds were posted, the court finds, until several months after the termination of the interceptions of oral and wire communications in this case.

The Court further finds that all of the oral and wire communications in this case were intercepted by such unqualified persons who had not posted the required bonds.

The orders for each interception of wire or oral communications in this case signed by Judge Thomas Scott authorized the interceptions to be made by “the State Attorney for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida and/or all her sworn investigators thereof’ ’.

Since none of the persons who intercepted the communications sought to be suppressed in this case were properly qualified special State Attorney Investigators, they had no authority to intercept communications under Judge Scott’s orders.

Therefore, based upon this ground alone, the motion to suppress must be granted.

Pen Register

[32]*32In Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 99 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
3 Fla. Supp. 2d 28, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-quesada-flacirct-1982.