Case ID: so2d_404/html/0151-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "WENTWORTH, Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Joseph H. PADGETT, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
    No. YY-495.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
    Sept. 17, 1981.
    Rehearing Denied Oct. 22, 1981.
    
      Ronald A. Dion, Entin, Schwartz, Angert, Dion & Broudy, North Miami Beach, Clyde M. Taylor, Jr., Tallahassee, for appellant.
    Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., David P. Gauldin, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
   WENTWORTH, Judge.

Appellant seeks review of a judgment of conviction and sentence imposed for the offense of unlawful compensation, § 838.-016, Florida Statutes. We affirm the order appealed.

Among other contentions, appellant alleges error based upon the court’s denial of a motion to suppress tape recordings made from the warrantless interception, pursuant to § 934.03(2)(c), Florida Statutes, of conversations between appellant and a police informant. The tapes include conversations which occurred in a motel room appellant used in furtherance of his illegal activity. The record indicates that upon being contacted at his private residence appellant arranged meetings at the motel room.

Article I, § 12, Florida Constitution, precludes the warrantless interception of private conversations conducted in the subject’s home. State v. Sarmiento, 397 So.2d 643 (Fla.1981); also see Hoberman v. State, 400 So.2d 758 (Fla.1981). However, in the circumstances of the present case we reject appellant’s suggestion that his motel room was the “functional equivalent” of a home, and we thus conclude that Sarmiento and Hoberman are inapplicable in this instance.

The order appealed is affirmed.

BOOTH and SHAW, JJ., concur.