Case Name: Stuart Garrett GREEN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1988-09-01
Citations: 530 So. 2d 480
Docket Number: No. 87-564
Parties: Stuart Garrett GREEN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida Appellee.
Judges: SHARP, C.J., and DAUKSCH and ORFINGER, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 530
Pages: 480–483

Head Matter:
Stuart Garrett GREEN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida Appellee.
No. 87-564.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
Sept. 1, 1988.
Irwin N. Sperling, Orlando, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Pamela D. Cichon, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

Opinion:
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING EN BANC
COBB, Judge.
Pursuant to motion by the state, we grant en banc rehearing, vacate our prior opinion herein, and substitute the following opinion therefor:
The appellant, Stuart Garrett Green, failed to stop his vehicle when directed to do so by police officers at an illegal driver's license check. The officers pursued and stopped him. He was then arrested for driving under the influence and a search incidental to his arrest revealed cocaine. He was charged with possession of that drug and with fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer in violation of section 316.1935, Florida Statutes (1985), which provides as follows:
(1) It is unlawful for the operator of any vehicle, having knowledge that he has been directed to stop such vehicle by a duly authorized police officer, willfully to refuse or fail to stop such vehicle in compliance with such directive or, having stopped in knowing compliance with such a directive, willfully to flee in an attempt to elude such officer....
Green's motion to suppress evidence on the basis of an invalid stop was denied. Green pled nolo contendere, reserving the right to raise this dispositive issue on appeal.
This case is controlled by our prior opinion in Jackson v. State, 463 So.2d 372 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985), review denied, 482 So.2d 345 (Fla.1986). Jackson involved a patrolling officer, Wandell, who became suspicious of three men standing in the street. As the officer approached the men, the defendant got into his ear and drove away. The officer radioed for assistance and two other officers pursued the defendant in their police cruiser with lights flashing. The chase ended in a struggle with the defendant and the defendant's arrest. This court rejected as irrelevant the defendant's argument that the initial stop was unlawful because it was not based on any founded suspicion of criminal activity. We stated:
[Irrespective of the illegality of the initial stop by Wandell, the applicable statute, section 316.1935, Florida Statutes (1983), relating to the offense of fleeing and eluding a police officer, does not require lawfulness of the police action as an element of the offense.
Id. at 373.
The cases relied upon by the appellant for reversal are all readily distinguishable from the instant factual scenario. In those cases, illegal roadblocks resulted in stops and seizures of evidence pursuant to that illegal stop. Here, Green did not stop. Without knowledge as to the legality or illegality of the attempted checkpoint stop, he drove through it, despite hand signals and verbal orders to stop from a police officer. Green was pursued and apprehended several blocks away. Incident to the arrest at that time — not at the point of the illegal checkpoint — he was searched and cocaine was discovered on his person. His stop for fleeing a police officer pursuant to section 316.1935, Florida Statutes (1987), was valid.
AFFIRMED.
SHARP, C.J., and DAUKSCH and ORFINGER, JJ., concur.
COWART, J., dissents with opinion.
DANIEL, J., dissents without opinion.
. The state concedes that the license checkpoint did not meet the standard for constitutional road blocks. See Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979).
. Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979); United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 96 S.Ct. 3074, 49 L.Ed.2d 1116 (1976); State v. Jones, 483 So.2d 433 (Fla.1986).