Title: State v. Simmons

State: florida

Issuer: Florida Supreme Court

Document:

85 So. 2d 879 (1956)
STATE of Florida, Appellant,
v.
Julis SIMMONS, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Florida. Special Division B.
February 3, 1956.
Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., John S. Lloyd, Asst. Atty. Gen., John D. Marsh, County Sol. and A.C. Dressler, Asst. County Sol., Miami, for appellant.
Emmett W. Kehoe, Miami, for appellee.
ROBERTS, Justice.
This is an appeal by the State from an adverse judgment in proceedings instituted by it under Section 849.12, Fla. Stat. 1953, F.S.A., for the forfeiture of some $545 seized from the defendant-appellee, Julis Simmons, and allegedly being used in setting up, conducting and operating a lottery. The cause was tried by the trial judge without a jury on the issues made by Simmons' answer, denying that the money was so used or that it was lawfully seized. *880 The trial judge found in his amended final judgment that "both the arrest and the search of the person and property of Julis Simmons was unlawful" and dismissed the complaint for forfeiture. This appeal by the State followed.
In support of the claim for forfeiture, the State's witnesses, who were Deputy Sheriffs of Dade County, testified that they had Simmons under surveillance on information received from an unknown source that he was engaged in bolita activities. On the afternoon in question, they followed him for some time, saw him get out of his car and enter a house, then come back out in a hurry, and re-enter his car. They said that he then started off at a terrific rate of speed and, after going several blocks at the same high rate of speed and weaving in and out of traffic, made a sharp turn to the left without giving a turn signal, causing cars coming from the north to come to a "screeching halt" in order to avoid hitting his car and endangering pedestrians at the intersection. They followed him for another block or two and then stopped him and told him he was under arrest for reckless driving. Further testimony of one of the deputies is as follows:
The defendant did not take the stand in his own defense, and rebutted the foregoing testimony only by putting in evidence his affidavit (taken in opposition to a motion for summary judgment filed by the State), denying that he was driving in the reckless manner charged by the State. The State's evidence relating to the possession by him of the bolita tickets and other items must, then, be deemed to have been admitted by him.
The only question here argued by the parties is whether the trial judge erred in refusing to admit into evidence the bolita tickets, money, and other items seized from the defendant's car and his person. The defendant contends here that he was not guilty of reckless driving and that "stopping his car at the point of a gun and charging him with `reckless driving' was merely a subterfuge and pretext to search *881 the appellee's car without a search warrant which is clearly a violation of his constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure."
It is true, as contended by defendant, that this court has held that an officer may not stop a person on a pretext of a traffic violation for the sole purpose of searching his person or car for evidence of another crime, and that a search and seizure made in such circumstances is "unreasonable" within the meaning and intent of Section 22 of the Declaration of Rights of the Florida Constitution, F.S.A. Graham v. State, Fla., 60 So. 2d 186. It has also been held by this court that "the search [without a warrant] of the trunk of [the driver's] car was not appropriately incident to making effective a lawful arrest for driving while intoxicated," so that evidence found in the trunk could not be used in a subsequent prosecution of the driver for violation of the lottery laws. Courington v. State, Fla. 1954, 74 So. 2d 652, 653. But the circumstances of the instant case are different; and the test of whether a search was or was not reasonable must be determined upon "due consideration of the circumstances and manner under which the search is made." Brown v. State, Fla., 46 So. 2d 479, 481; Haile v. Gardner, 82 Fla. 355, 91 So. 376.
Here, the defendant was not only arrested for "reckless driving"; he was also arrested for possession of bolita tickets. The search of his person was made as an incident to his possession of the bolita tickets, and not as an incident to his arrest for a violation of our traffic laws. As noted above, the defendant admitted his possession of the bolita tickets, which were lying in full view on the seat of his car, before he was searched by the officers or the material seized; and, we think the officers would have been derelict in their duty if they had failed to arrest him and subsequently to seize the contraband. It then became their duty to search his person and "to seize anything found on his person or in his possession or control tending to show that the person is guilty of a violation of the law." Brown v. State, Fla., 46 So. 2d 479, 481. It is not clear from the record whether the defendant was formally charged by the officers with a violation of law arising out of his possession of the bolita tickets, before or after he was searched, but we think the search was valid in either case. He was already under arrest for violation of the traffic laws; and it would appear to be a purely technical matter, not affecting the validity of the search, to require the officers to charge him formally with something he had already admitted, before proceeding with a search of his person for further evidence of his violation of the lottery laws.
We think that, in all the circumstances here, the search of the defendant's person and the seizure of the gambling material found in his car and on his person was "reasonable", within the meaning and intent of Section 22, supra, and that the lower court erred in refusing to admit it into evidence.
Accordingly, the judgment appealed from should be and it is hereby reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings.
DREW, C.J., and THOMAS and THORNAL, JJ., concur.