Case Name: David GOODWIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1998-04-08
Citations: 721 So. 2d 728
Docket Number: No. 97-2086
Parties: David GOODWIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: FARMER, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 721
Pages: 728–731

Head Matter:
David GOODWIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 97-2086.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
April 8, 1998.
Opinion Denying Rehearing June 24, 1998.
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Tatjana Ostapoff, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Melynda L. Melear, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

Opinion:
WARNER, Judge.
In describing the function of Broward County Sheriffs Office's Street Crime Unit during appellant's trial for delivery of cocaine, one of the testifying officers explained that the officer "goes into the areas that are known for street level drug sales and he tries to make buys from street level dealers." Appellant's counsel objected to the comment on the grounds that "he's talking about that they're targeting dealers, that the guys drive around because they're out to catch dealers." The trial court sustained the objection and gave a curative instruction to disregard the comment, but reserved its ruling on the motion for mistrial until after the trial, at which time the motion was denied based on Watson v. State, 672 So.2d 71 (Fla. 4th DCA), rev. denied, 679 So.2d 775 (Fla.1996).
Our review of the record convinces us that this single comment was not "unduly prejudi cial," see Gillion v. State, 573 So.2d 810, 812 (Fla.1991), as the state had already elicited similar testimony that the detectives were looking for drug dealers from other witnesses and defense counsel raised no objection. In the instant case, the officer who purchased the cocaine from appellant positively and unequivocally identified appellant, and while the marked money was not found on appellant when he was arrested, the arresting officer saw appellant throw currency into a nearby fire at the time of his arrest. Appellant presented no defense, other than to argue in closing that the officer misidentified him. This is not a constitutional error to which State v. DiGuilio, 491 So.2d 1129 (Fla. 1986), is required to be applied. The Legislature has the authority to enact a statute setting forth the standard for reversal. See id. at 1134 n.9. Section 924.051(7), Florida Statutes (1995), places the burden on the appellant to show that a prejudicial error has occurred. We conclude that appellant has failed to demonstrate such an error.
We distinguish Wheeler v. State, 690 So.2d 1369 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997), Sherrod v. State, 582 So.2d 814 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991), Hutchinson v. State, 580 So.2d 257 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991), Black v. State, 545 So.2d 498 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989), and Beneby v. State, 354 So.2d 98 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978), in which "bad neighborhood" comments combined with either improper prosecutorial remarks or additional bad neighborhood testimony from other witnesses constituted reversible error. However, we acknowledge that in Dorsey v. State, 639 So.2d 158 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994), and Lowder v. State, 589 So.2d 933 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991), a single "bad neighborhood" reference constituted reversible error. We note that both eases were decided prior to the enactment of section 924.051(7), and thus relied on DiGuilio in determining that the error was not harmless.
FARMER, J., concurs.
KLEIN, J., concurs specially with opinion.