State v. Steffani

398 So. 2d 475
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMay 12, 1981
Docket80-933
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 398 So. 2d 475 (State v. Steffani) 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. Steffani, 398 So. 2d 475 (Fla. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

398 So.2d 475 (1981)

The STATE of Florida, Appellant,
v.
Noel STEFFANI, Jr., Appellee.

No. 80-933.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

May 12, 1981.

Janet Reno, State Atty. and Ira N. Loewy, Asst. State Atty., and Bruce H. Lehr, Legal Intern, for appellant.

Paul Morris, Miami, for appellee.

Before SCHWARTZ, NESBITT and FERGUSON, JJ.

SCHWARTZ, Judge.

This appeal by the state from an order of suppression presents the question of whether the "knock and announce" statute and Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980) apply to the entry into a suspect's home of police officers in the company of an undercover agent who had previously been invited there. We join the fourth district in its recently expressed conclusions that they do not. Therefore, in accordance with the trial judge's stated wishes, but not with his ruling, the order under review will be reversed.

The comprehensive decision rendered below after a full evidentiary hearing sets forth the court's factual findings and legal determination as follows:

Undercover agents, Guilfoyle and Houck, were invited by the Defendant, Noel Steffani, to his home for the purpose of consummating an illegal drug sale on the evening of July 6, 1979. After the usual amenities in a transaction of this nature, the Defendant escorted the agents to a bedroom, where he displayed various controlled substances, including marijuana, cocaine and assorted tablets. After agreeing upon a price, Agent Houck went outside the house, ostensibly to obtain the money for payment. When the agent returned, he was followed (on a pre-arranged signal) by various back-up teams of officers with guns drawn. None of these officers knocked, or announced their presence, or performed the requirements *476 of the `knock and announce law', § 901.19(1), Fla. Stat. The back-up officers proceeded to arrest the Defendant and to confiscate the illegal contraband. The undercover agents continued for some period to play the ruse, and, in fact, were initially frisked and detained.[1] Some time later, their true identity was revealed to the Defendant.
"[1] Note: Throughout these proceedings, the State has contended that the undercover agents were the arresting officers, notwithstanding the initial ruse, and points to the fact that Guilfoyle and Houck signed the arrest form. This Court does not agree."
In light of the facts of this case, this Court is compelled to grant the Motion to Suppress under the recent authority of Hansen v. State, 372 So.2d 1003 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979), and State v. Roman, 309 So.2d 12 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975).[[1]]

The applicability of Section 901.19(1), Fla. Stat. (1979) to variations of the "returning undercover officer" situation exemplified by this case has been the subject of numerous decisions — almost all of them, unaccountably enough, of the fourth district court of appeal. These cases had clearly established that the statute is not causally implicated and noncompliance therefore does not require suppression when — unlike the present situation — an arrest had been made or the contraband seized inside the premises, prior and unrelated to the unannounced return of the undercover officer.[2]*477 Koptyra v. State, 172 So.2d 628 (Fla. 2d DCA 1965); Powers v. State, 271 So.2d 462 (Fla. 1st DCA 1973); State v. Yenke, 288 So.2d 531 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974), cert. denied, 295 So.2d 303 (Fla. 1974); State v. Farrington, 338 So.2d 81 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976); Preces v. State, 378 So.2d 77 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979), cert. denied, 388 So.2d 1117 (Fla. 1980), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 101 S.Ct. 569, 66 L.Ed.2d 471 (1980). The rule was otherwise, however, when, after and as a result of a reentry by the initially invited officer, the arrest or seizure was effected either (a) by that particular officer, State v. Collier 270 So.2d 451 (Fla. 4th DCA 1972), followed in State v. Roman, 309 So.2d 12 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975), cert. dismissed, 312 So.2d 761 (Fla. 1975); see also, Urquhart v. State, 211 So.2d 79 (Fla. 2d DCA 1968), or (b) a fortiori, by uninvited accompanying uniformed officers — as occurred in this case. Hansen v. State, 372 So.2d 1003 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979).

In a two-step process, however, the fourth district has now overruled these latter holdings. Lawrence v. State, 388 So.2d 1250 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980), held that the original invitation to the disguised officer applied to his own anticipated return, even though he had left on a pretext and was reentering for the wholly unanticipated purpose of arresting those with whom he had been dealing. At 388 So.2d 1252, the court stated:

[W]e hold, as we did concerning Officer Riffle in Yenke, that Ortenzo had implied consent to reenter the house. Appellants were attempting to sell contraband; the deal had been agreed upon; and Ortenzo ostensibly went outside to get the money. Obviously, appellants wanted him to return to complete the deal. Thus, to require him to knock and announce would be an absurd legalistic construction of the knock and announce statute. To the extent State v. Collier, 270 So.2d 451 (Fla. 4th DCA 1972), holds to the contrary, we recede from it.[[3]]

The court reiterated this holding in State v. Schwartz, 398 So.2d 460 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981):

We find that the knock and announce statute does not apply in this case because Gibbons had an implied invitation to return to the residence. See, Lawrence v. State, supra, at 1252. To the extent that the above cases[[4]] hold to the contrary, we recede from them.

More significantly as to this case, Schwartz expressly receded from Hansen. Adopting the specially concurring opinion in Lawrence of Judge Anstead, who had himself authored Hansen a short time before, the court held that the presence of other never-invited *478 officers, along with the undercover man, does not affect the inapplicability of the statute. The court held, in language which controls this case:

Fourth Amendment privacy considerations are relevant in construing the knock and announce statute. Accordingly we adopt the well reasoned, concurring opinion by Judge Anstead in Lawrence, supra.
I agree completely with Judge Downey's opinion. This court has had substantial difficulty reconciling several previous decisions we have rendered involving similar factual situations. See Hansen v. State, 372 So.2d 1003 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979). In my view once the defendants admitted the undercover police officers to their premises and proceeded to openly engage in criminal conduct in the officers' presence they could not thereafter claim any violation of their reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment if one of the officers left and returned, alone or with other officers, and effected their arrest. Under such circumstances the defendants have waived any privacy claim by disclosing the contraband and engaging in criminal conduct in the presence of the officers, who could have effected the arrest of the defendants inside the premises at any time.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Johnson
691 So. 2d 483 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1996)
Fidalgo v. State
659 So. 2d 290 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1994)
State v. Lopez
590 So. 2d 1045 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)
State v. Fernandez
538 So. 2d 899 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1989)
State v. Hume
512 So. 2d 185 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1987)
Zarate v. State
466 So. 2d 1176 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1985)
State v. Hume
463 So. 2d 499 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1985)
State v. Cantrell
426 So. 2d 1035 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1983)
Steffani v. State
419 So. 2d 323 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1982)
Torres v. State
413 So. 2d 436 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1982)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
398 So. 2d 475, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-steffani-fladistctapp-1981.