Case Name: The STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Stanley Roland BUTLER, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1988-03-01
Citations: 520 So. 2d 325
Docket Number: No. 87-1641
Parties: The STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Stanley Roland BUTLER, Appellee.
Judges: Before HENDRY and DANIEL S. PEARSON and JORGENSON, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 520
Pages: 325–327

Head Matter:
The STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Stanley Roland BUTLER, Appellee.
No. 87-1641.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
March 1, 1988.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Claire Lardner, Certified Legal Intern, and Richard L. Polín and Fariba N. Komeily, Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellant.
Weiner, Robbins, Tunkey & Ross and Benjamin S. Waxman and Robert G. Amsel, Miami, for appellee.
Before HENDRY and DANIEL S. PEARSON and JORGENSON, JJ.

Opinion:
HENDRY, Judge.
The state appeals from an order granting defendant's motion to suppress evidence and statements. We affirm.
Police officers, acting on a tip provided by an unidentified informant with no history of reliability, set up surveillance outside a house suspected of being the site of drug activity. No activity of any kind was observed during the initial surveillance. A few weeks later, officers noticed vehicles parked at the house. A van, driven by defendant, and another vehicle were followed by the officers as they drove away from the house. After the individuals had traveled a few miles, officers stopped the vehicles, although no traffic violations were observed. At this point there is conflicting testimony regarding the subsequent events. A plain-clothed officer testified he approached the van without drawing his gun and asked defendant for permission to search the van, which defendant allegedly granted. Defendant testified that a uniformed officer told him to get out of the van at gunpoint. Defendant further testified that while he was outside with his hands up, another officer took the keys from the ignition and began to search the van without obtaining defendant's consent to search. One hundred bales of marijuana were found inside a compartment of the van.
The trial court concluded that the state failed to meet its burden in demonstrating the existence of "specific and articulable facts, which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warranted the stop of defendant's van]." Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d 889, 906 (1968). "[W]hen consent is obtained after illegal police activity such as an illegal search or arrest, the unlawful police action presumptively taints and renders involuntary any consent to search." Norman v. State, 379 So.2d 643, 646-47 (Fla.1980); accord Bailey v. State, 319 So.2d 22 (Fla.1975). The trial court, relying on Norman, found the defendant's alleged consent was involuntary because there was no "clear and convincing proof of an unequivocal break in the chain of illegality sufficient to dissipate the taint of prior official illegal action." Norman, 379 So.2d at 647.
The state contends, however, that defendant was advised he had the right to refuse consent to the search. Consequently, the state argues, any taint which may have arisen from the unlawful stop was dissipated as a matter of law when defendant was informed of his constitutional right to refuse consent, yet voluntarily agreed to the search. State v. Martinez, 459 So.2d 1062 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); State v. Milwood, 430 So.2d 563 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983); Husted v. State, 370 So.2d 853 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979).
Unlike the ample record provided in State v. Gribeiro, 513 So.2d 1823, 1824 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987), which stated defendant "was advised that he need not consent to a search, and in spite of these events, he voluntarily consented to a search", see also Martinez, 459 So.2d at 1062 (record indisputably reflects that defendant was advised by police of her right to withhold consent to search); State v. Mitchell, 377 So.2d 1006 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979) (uncontra-dicted testimony indicates defendant was twice informed of right to refuse consent to search), the record in the instant case is scanty and at best provides conflicting testimony regarding whether defendant was advised he had a right to refuse consent. In view of the fact that a ruling on a motion to suppress is presumptively correct, and an appellate court should interpret the evidence and reasonable inferences in a manner most favorable to the trial court's ruling, Johnson v. State, 438 So.2d 774, 776 (Fla.1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1051, 104 S.Ct. 1329, 79 L.Ed.2d 724 (1984), we affirm.
Affirmed.
. No illegal activity was observed by the officers during the subsequent surveillance. Furthermore, the officers observed no behavior consistent with the tip, except that one of the vehicles had a Maryland plate. The only evidence gathered from this surveillance was that the defendant wore gloves when he left the house, the other individual carried a box wrapped with duct tape, and garbage bags full of something were seen inside the garage of the house.
. The correct standard of proof in cases such as this where consent follows an illegal detention, arrest, seizure, search or other police misconduct is clear and convincing evidence. State v. Fuksman, 468 So.2d 1067, 1072 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985) (special concurrence, Pearson, Daniel S., J.); see DuBoise v. State, 12 F.L.W. 107 (Fla. Feb. 27,1987) (clear and convincing standard is used to prove defendant's consent wets voluntarily given after an illegal arrest); Alvarez v. State, 515 So.2d 286 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987) (no valid consent is established unless state can show, by clear and convincing evidence, an unequivocal break in the chain of illegality between the prior unlawful detention and the purported consent); cf. State v. Blan, 489 So.2d 865 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986) (absent antecedent police misconduct, consent to search need only be shown by preponderance of the evidence).