Case Name: Phillip Thomas SAADI, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1995-05-19
Citations: 658 So. 2d 112
Docket Number: No. 94-00800
Parties: Phillip Thomas SAADI, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: ALTENBERND, A.C.J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 658
Pages: 112–116

Head Matter:
Phillip Thomas SAADI, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 94-00800.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.
May 19, 1995.
Rehearing Denied July 12, 1995.
Michael C. Cheek, Clearwater, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Tonja Vickers, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.

Opinion:
QUINCE, Judge.
Phillip Thomas Saadi seeks review of the trial court's order denying his motion to suppress evidence. We affirm because the officers had a well-founded suspicion of criminal activity which justified the stop of the vehicle in which appellant was riding.
On November 26, 1993, Officers James Griffis and Donald Herring were conducting surveillance of a house at 886 14th Avenue in Pinellas County, Florida. The house is in an area known for drug activity. This particular residence had been under surveillance by Officer Herring three times a week for a month. During this time vehicles would drive up to the residence, either along the street or in the driveway, black males would come out and approach the drivers or the drivers would get out of the vehicle, items would be handed back and forth, then the vehicle would leave. The officer testified three or four arrests were made after observing these activities, and the arrestees were found with cocaine on their persons.
Officer Herring indicated on the night in question at approximately 2:50 a.m. he was on foot directly across the street from the house when he observed a red Ford Escort pull into the driveway. He was 100 feet from the residence and used binoculars to aid his vision. Several black males came out of the house and approached the vehicle. Appellant got out of the front passenger side of the vehicle and walked toward the front of the Escort. Officer Herring radioed a description of appellant and the vehicle to Officer Atherton, who was in a cruiser a few blocks away. Appellant and one of the black males were engaged in conversation. The black male cupped his hand and held it out to appellant. Appellant looked down into the hand, then began reaching into his front right pocket. Both appellant and the other person walked further toward the house and behind another car parked in the driveway. After being behind the car for a few seconds, appellant turned around and quickly walked back to the Escort. The car then backed out and drove away.
Officer Atherton testified he was in his marked cruiser when he was given information over the radio by Officer Herring concerning a red Escort and the appellant. He was told to stop the vehicle. After observing a cracked windshield, he got behind the vehicle and stopped it. On cross-examination Officer Atherton stated he stopped the vehicle based^ on the information given him by Officer Herring. Officer Herring was relaying the observations he made through the binoculars.
The only issue before this court is the legality of the stop. Did the officers have a well-founded suspicion of criminal activity to justify a stop of the vehicle? We answer this question in the affirmative. A suspicion is founded when it has some factual foundation based on circumstances observed by the officer when those circumstances are interpreted in light of the officer's knowledge. Brown v. State, 636 So.2d 174 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994). The state must point to specific and articulable facts, together with rational inferences drawn from those facts, that reasonably suggest that criminal activity has occurred or is imminent. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). Law enforcement officers are not required to look the other way and permit a crime to occur or a criminal to escape. Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 32 L.Ed.2d 612 (1972). In the instant case, the facts and circumstances outlined above, including the surveillance of the house, observance of other drug activity, the actions of the appellant, as well as inferences drawn from those actions, combined to give the officer a well-founded suspicion that appellant had engaged in the criminal act of purchasing drugs.
The police, for reasons not disclosed in this record, had the residence under surveillance for a month. On other occasions the officer who was on surveillance duty on this night had observed what he believed to be drug transactions. These transactions occurred when a vehicle pulled in front of or into the driveway of the residence. Someone from inside would come to the vehicle or meet an occupant outside the vehicle. After a short exchange, the vehicle would leave the premises. On the night appellant was arrested, he was observed engaging in the same activities.
This case is similar to the situation addressed by the Third Circuit Court in United States v. Hawkins, 811 F.2d 210 (3d Cir. 1987), where the court held the officer had a founded suspicion of criminal activity based on a police officer's surveillance of a house suspected of being a location for drug activities. During surveillance from 8:45 to 9:30 p.m. and 10:00 to 10:30 p.m. the officer observed people go to the front door or enter the house briefly and then leave. The officer did not actually see any drugs change hands, he observed "exchange of hand motion." At 11:30 p.m. on the same night, the officer saw a car containing two persons pull up to the residence. The passenger entered the house, returned to the car within five minutes and spoke to the driver for a minute, then returned to the house. A few minutes later the passenger returned to the car with two men who got into the rear seat of the car. The officer followed and stopped the ear after observing the car pass a bus, cross a double yellow line and run a red light. The district court held there was no evidence justifying the stop based on a traffic violation; however, the events observed by the officer at the residence gave the officer a well-founded suspicion of criminal activity. On appeal the court affirmed finding the events observed justified a brief investigatory stop pursuant to Terry. Accord People v. Nelson, 443 Mich. 626, 505 N.W.2d 266 (1993) (stop upheld where defendants had been observed stopping for four minutes at a house that had been raided two weeks earlier for selling cocaine; house continued to operate as a source for drugs; and there had been a controlled buy at the house 30 minutes earlier); Pickersgill v. State, 516 So.2d 92 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987) (founded suspicion justifying stops upheld where the police had information concerning bales of marijuana being offloaded from a truck into the garage of a drug house; a surveillance of the residence began and police observed activity consistent with the information given; they observed a truck exiting the garage and Pickersgill backing his car into the garage and closing the door; a second ear came and backed up to the garage; both defendants were stopped when they left the residence).
While this case bears some similarities to Tinson v. State, 650 So.2d 189 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995), Powell v. State, 649 So.2d 888 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995), and Burnett v. State, 644 So.2d 152 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994), the instant case is factually distinguishable. In both Timón and Powell the defendants entered the drug houses and left after a few minutes. The officers were unable to observe any activity inside the residences. There were no movements on the part of either defendant that would suggest illegal activity. The defendant in Burnett did not follow the pattern that had been established during the officer's surveillance. The police had seen persons make contact with someone at the house, go to the back of the house and leave. Burnett, however, parked in the front of the house, got out and talked with someone outside, walked out of view, then returned to his vehicle. These cases did not involve the police observing the defendant looking at something in the hand of another person or a gesture toward the front pocket, a gesture suggesting money being retrieved.
Based on the facts presented, the officers had a well-founded suspicion of criminal activity. The totality of the circumstances including the time of the day, the actions of the persons involved, and prior activity at this residence observed by the officers, when considered together justified an investigative stop of the vehicle in which appellant was a passenger.
We, therefore, affirm the judgment and sentence.
ALTENBERND, A.C.J., concurs.
BLUE, J., dissents with opinion.
. Appellant does not contest the events which occurred after the stop of the vehicle, and the trial court did not rule on the issue of whether the stop, if based on a traffic infraction, was pretextual. The evidence does not support the state's argument that the stop was a valid one based on a broken window.