Case Name: STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. James RABB, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2004-06-23
Citations: 881 So. 2d 587
Docket Number: No. 4D02-5139
Parties: STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. James RABB, Appellee.
Judges: FARMER, C.J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 881
Pages: 587–604

Head Matter:
STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. James RABB, Appellee.
No. 4D02-5139.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
June 23, 2004.
Rehearing Denied Sept. 22, 2004.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Claudine M. LaFrance, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Charles Wender of Charles Wender Attorney-ab-Law, Chartered, Boca Raton, for appellee.

Opinion:
GUNTHER, J.
The State appeals the trial court order granting James Rabb's motion to suppress. James Rabb was charged with possession of Alprazolam (Xanex), possession of 3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and possession of cannabis (marijuana). Rabb moved to suppress the drugs recovered from his house pursuant to a search warrant. The warrant had been issued based on a "dog sniff' at the exterior of Rabb's house by a canine trained to detect the odor of marijuana. The trial court granted Rabb's motion to suppress, and the State appeals. We affirm.
We take our facts directly from the Affidavit and Application for a Search Warrant:
On April 19, 2002 a source of information, who requested to remain anonymous, called the Broward Sheriffs Office and stated that a white male subject who was born in 1967, by the name of John Brown had a cannabis grow operation in his resi dence. The source further explained that the residence is located on Polk Street in Hollywood, behind the Howard Johnson's Hotel.
Your Affiant and Det. Taranu investigated the allegation. A check of the Bro-ward County Property Appraisers Office revealed that John Brown owned a residence on Polk Street in the City of Hollywood, 2839 Polk Street. During the investigation John Browns vehicle, 2011 Pontiac Firebird, FI tag, LPS485, was observed parked in front of the residence on several occasions.
On April 23, 2002 at approximately 1530 hours, Det. Taranu and your Affiant initiated surveillance on the residence. At 1600 hours a white male, identified as John Brown, exited the residence and entered the 2001 black firebird. Mr. Brown traveled West on Polk Street, cut through the Howard Johnson's parking lot to Hollywood Blvd and entered Interstate 95 North bound. Mr. Brown traveled North on Interstate 95 with Det. Taranu and your Affiant following. During the surveillance Mr. Brown made an improper lane change and was driving approximately forty miles per hour in a fifty-five mile per hour zone. At 1610 hours a traffic stop was initiated on Mr. Brown. While Mr. Brown was changing lanes to stop in the outside emergency lane your Affiant observed him placing his hands under the drivers seat and make several overt motions. Once Mr. Brown was stopped he was asked to exit the vehicle for officer safety. While Mr. Brown was exiting the vehicle your Affiant observed two cannabis cultivation books and one cannabis cultivation video on the front drivers seat of the vehicle in plain view. Your Affiant asked Mr. Brown for his drivers license. Mr. Brown was visually nervous, hands trembling while he was locating his license.
Mr. Brown was told that detectives were conducting an investigation and before he was asked any questions your Affiant needed to read him his rights. Mr. Brown was read his rights at which time he understood his rights and agreed to answer questions. Mr. Brown was asked if he had a cannabis grow operation inside the residence. Mr. Brown would not answer the question but stated that he was working inside the residence replacing dry-wall. Your Affiant then asked Mr. Brown about the books and video tape of cannabis cultivation inside the vehicle. Mr. Brown stated that he was just interested in cannabis cultivation.
While I was speaking to Mr. Brown Det. Taranu and his drug detector dog, "Chevy", checked the exterior of the vehicle. Det. Taranu's drug detector dog alerted to the exterior of the vehicle. The drug detector dog was then placed into the interior of the vehicle and alerted to the ashtray. One cannabis cigarette was recovered from the ashtray which field tested positive.
Your Affiant continued to speak with Mr. Brown who eventually stated that he wished to speak with an attorney. All questioning was terminated. Mr. Brown was advised that he under arrest for possession of cannabis and as detectives were about to place him into a BSO marked unit he stated that he had additional cannabis inside of his left shoe/ sock. Two cannabis cigarettes were removed from Mr. Brown's left shoe/sock area. The cannabis field tested positive.
At 1705 hours Det. Taranu and his drug detector dog, "Chevy" walked by the front of the residence. The drug detector dog walked from the public roadway in front of the residence, up to the front door and alerted. The alert was consis tent with previous alerts when narcotics were located. Furthermore, Sgt. Dami-ano and Det. Taranu walked to the front door of the residence and could smell the odor of cannabis emitting from the residence.
Based on the information provided by the confidential source, the cultivation of cannabis books and video's located in Mr. Brown's vehicle, the cannabis located in Mr. Brown's vehicle as well as his person and the drug detector dog alert on the residence, your Affiant believes that a cannabis growing operation is located inside the residence.
Based on this affidavit, a search warrant was issued for Rabb's house. When law enforcement entered the house, it discovered a cannabis grow operation and sixty-four cannabis plants. Additionally, a safe was discovered containing two MDMA tablets, Alprazolam tablets, and three cannabis cigarettes. The safe also contained a key to one of the grow rooms and Rabb's Social Security card and birth certificate, which presumably identified him as James Rabb and not John Brown. Based on the evidence recovered from Rabb's house, he was charged by information with possession of the controlled substance Alprazo-lam, possession of the controlled substance MDMA, and possession of cannabis in an amount of twenty grams or less.
Rabb filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained from his house, asserting that the dog sniff at the exterior of his house was an illegal search, and thus, there was no probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant for Rabb's house.
The trial court granted the motion to suppress, recognizing the question of "whether it is violative of the Fourth Amendment to conduct a dog sniff of a private residence in order to obtain probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant," to be one of first impression in Florida. It should be noted that this question was addressed in the context of the trial court's factual finding that "Taranu took Chevy to the front door of the residence where the dog alerted." Considering United States v. Thomas, 757 F.2d 1359 (2d Cir.1985), as persuasive precedent, the trial court concluded that the use of the dog sniff of Rabb's house amounted to a warrantless search and could not support the issuance of the subsequent search warrant for Rabb's house. The trial court then undertook to determine whether there was sufficient lawfully obtained evidence to establish probable cause to obtain a search warrant for Rabb's house without the dog sniff, and concluded that there was not where "[t]here was no indicia of a marijuana grow house, i.e., covered windows, high pedestrian traffic, higher than normal use of electricity, etc.," the informant's veracity was not established in the affidavit, and the marijuana in Rabb's car did not establish any illegal activities in his house.
"The standard of review applicable to a motion to suppress evidence requires that this Court defer to the trial court's factual findings but review legal conclusions de novo." Backus v. State, 864 So.2d 1158, 1159 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003)(citing Batson v. State, 847 So.2d 1149, 1150 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003)).
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." Under the lockstep approach of Article 1, Section 12 of the Florida Constitution, the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures "shall be construed in conformity with the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution, as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court."
The question raised in this case is whether a dog sniff at the exterior of a house is a search under the Fourth Amendment. In order to be classified as a search, law enforcement conduct must violate a " 'constitutionally protected reasonable expectation of privacy.' " California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207, 211, 106 S.Ct. 1809, 90 L.Ed.2d 210 (1986)(quoting Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 360, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967)(Harlan, J., concurring)). Furthermore, as Justice Harlan pointed out in his concurring opinion in Katz: "As the Court's opinion states, 'the Fourth Amendment' protects people, not places.' The question, however, is what protection it affords those people. Generally, as here, the answer to that question requires reference to a 'place.' " Katz, 389 U.S. at 361, 88 S.Ct. 507.
When considering whether law enforcement activity at a house constitutes a search, it is necessary to consider the constitutional protections afforded a house throughout the long history of the Fourth Amendment. At the center of the Fourth Amendment stands "the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion." Silverman v. United States, 365 U.S. 505, 511, 81 S.Ct. 679, 5 L.Ed.2d 734 (1961). In fact, "the 'physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.' " Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 585-586, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980)(quoting United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297, 313, 92 S.Ct. 2125, 32 L.Ed.2d 752 (1972)). The Fourth Amendment operates to draw "a firm line at the entrance to the house." Payton, 445 U.S. at 589,. 100 S.Ct. 1371.
Given the shroud of protection wrapped around a house by the Fourth Amendment, we conclude that Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 121 S.Ct. 2038, 150 L.Ed.2d 94 (2001), controls the outcome of the case at bar. In Kyllo, law enforcement, believing Kyllo to be growing marijuana in his house, employed an Agema Thermovision 210 thermal imager to scan his house and reveal heat signatures. Id. at 29, 121 S.Ct. 2038. The thermal scan revealed that a portion of the roof and one wall of the house were relatively hot compared to the remainder of the house and surrounding houses. Id. at 30, 121 S.Ct. 2038. 'As a result, law enforcement concluded that Kyllo was employing, halide lamps to grow marijuana. Id. Combined with further information gathered, law enforcement obtained a warrant and discovered in excess of one hundred marijuana plants in Kyllo's house. Id. Kyllo was charged with manufacturing marijuana and moved to suppress the marijuana evidence seized from his house based on the use of the thermal imager. The trial court and appellate court determined that use of the thermal imager did not amount to a search of Kyllo's house. Id. at 30-31, 121 S.Ct. 2038.
The United States Supreme Court reversed the lower courts, holding:
We think that obtaining by sense-enhancing technology any information regarding the interior of the home that could not otherwise have been obtained without physical "intrusion into a constitutionally protected area," constitutes a search — at least where (as here) the technology in question is not in general public use.
Id. at 84, 121 S.Ct. 2038. To conclude otherwise would "leave the homeowner at the mercy of advancing technology — including imaging technology that could discern all human activity in the home." Id. at 35-36,121 S.Ct. 2038. Overall:
The Fourth Amendment's protection of the home has never been tied to measurement of the quality or quantity of information obtained. In Silverman, for example, we made clear that any physical invasion of the structure of the home, "by even a fraction of an inch," was too much, and there is certainly no exception to the warrant requirement for the officer who barely cracks open the front door and sees nothing but the noninti-mate rug on the vestibule floor. In the home, our cases show, all details are intimate details, because the entire area is held safe from prying government eyes.
Id. at 37, 121 S.Ct. 2038 (emphasis in original). The relative warmth of Kyllo's house was deemed one of these intimate details, and it was a Fourth Amendment violation for law enforcement to employ a thermal imager to discern that intimate detail. Id. at 38,121 S.Ct. 2038.
Specifically concerning law enforcement use of dog sniffs by trained canines to detect contraband, it is true that the United States Supreme Court held in United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983), that "the particular course of investigation that the agents intended to pursue here — exposure of respondent's luggage, which was located in a public place, to a trained canine — did not constitute a 'search' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment." Id. at 707, 103 S.Ct. 2637. The rationale for the holding is that "the sniff discloses only the presence or absence of narcotics, a contraband item." Id. at 707, 103 S.Ct. 2637. In Place, the United States Supreme Court was not addressing the use of law enforcement investigatory techniques at a house, but rather only whether a dog sniff of luggage in a public airport constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment. The role of "place" in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence was instrumental in the decision in Place.
"Place" is no less key in the case at bar. We are of the view that luggage located in a public airport is quite different from a house, not only in physical attributes, but also in the historical protection granted by law. In United States v. Thomas, 757 F.2d 1359, 1366 (2d Cir.1985), the Second Circuit compared the dog sniff of luggage in Place with that of an apartment, and concluded that "a practice that is not intrusive in a public airport may be intrusive when employed at a person's home." The rationale for this conclusion is that "the defendant had a legitimate expectation that the contents of his closed apartment would remain private, that they could not be 'sensed' from outside his door. Use of the trained dog impermissibly intruded on that legitimate expectation." Id. 1367.
This logic is no different than that expressed in Kyllo, one of the most recent pronouncements by the United States Supreme Court on law enforcement searches of houses. Had law enforcement not brought a dog to Rabb's house, it likely would not have detected the odor of marijuana emanating from the house. Thus the use of the dog, like the use of a thermal imager, allowed law enforcement to intrude into the constitutionally protected area of Rabb's house, and such reasonably could be considered a search violative of Rabb's expectation of privacy in his retreat. Likewise, it is of no importance that a dog sniff provides limited information, because as in Kyllo, the quality or quantity of information obtained through the search is not the feared injury. Rather, it is the fact that law enforcement endeavored to obtain the information at all, or in this case, the fact that a dog's sense of smell crossed the "firm line" of Fourth Amendment protection at the door of Rabb's house. Because the smell of marijuana had its source in Rabb's house, it was an "intimate detail" of that house, no less so than the relative warmth of Kyllo's house. Therefore, until the United States Supreme Court indicates otherwise, we are bound to conclude that the use of a dog sniff to detect contraband at a house does not pass constitutional muster. The use of such a technique by law enforcement constitutes an illegal search.
Finally, we briefly address the dissent's attempt to differentiate Kyllo on the basis of the fact that it is concerned with the use of advanced technology by law enforcement. It is true that "the Fourth Amendment protection of the home has never been extended to require law enforcement officers to shield their eyes when passing a home on a public thoroughfare." Ciraolo, 476 U.S. at 213, 106 S.Ct. 1809. However, the use of enhancement to human senses often entails more than an unshielded glance at a house believed to obtain contraband. The use of dogs for investigation is a longstanding practice, but "the officers' use of a dog is not a mere improvement of their sense of smell, as ordinary eyeglasses improve vision, but is a significant enhancement accomplished by a different, and far superi- or, sensory instrument." Thomas, 757 F.2d at 1367. Likewise, "thermal imagers detect infrared radiation, which virtually all objects emit but which is not visible to the naked eye." Kyllo, 533 U.S. at 29, 121 S.Ct. 2038. Although a drug detector dog's sense of smell may not be technology, it, like the Agema Thermovision 210, allows law enforcement to detect that which it otherwise likely would not detect. Relying on Kyllo, we conclude that although the use of such enhancement techniques to detect contraband subsequently seized by warrant may not amount to a search in a place such as a public airport, it does when intruding into a house to discern "intimate details." See Payton, 445 U.S. at 586-587 n. 24, 100 S.Ct. 1371.
Before turning to the issue of whether there was yet probable cause to support the issuance of a search warrant for Rabb's house based on independent lawful evidence, we briefly address the dissent's assertion that our opinion directly conflicts with Nelson v. Florida, 867 So.2d 534 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004). In Nelson, the defendant checked into a Holiday Inn in Palatka, and the hotel staff reported his presence to law enforcement because he matched a profile of drug dealers who used the hotel as a point of sale. Id. at 535. Law enforcement then used a trained canine to walk the halls of the hotel and perform drug sniffs of each door. Id. The canine alerted to the defendant's door, and law enforcement found cocaine inside the room. Id. The defendant- filed a motion to suppress alleging that law enforcement violated the Fourth Amendment by employing "a sensory enhancing animal that was unable to detect contraband until it was within eighteen inches to three feet of the lower door jam[b]" of the hotel room. Id. The trial court denied the motion and the Fifth District affirmed. Id.
The court's rationale in Nelson is as follows. Despite the fact that hotel rooms are constitutionally-protected areas, individuals do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in public areas outside a hotel room, such as hallways. Id. (citing Brant v. State, 349 So.2d 674 (Fla. 2d DCA 1977)). The court then went on to reject the defendant's Fourth Amendment argument and United States v. Thomas, 757 F.2d 1359 (2d Cir.1985). Nelson, 867 So.2d at 536-537. In so doing, the court cited federal precedent holding, inter alia:
"The fact that a dog, as odor detector, is more skilled than a human does not render the dog's sniff illegal. Just as evidence in the plain view of an officer may be searched without a warrant, evidence in the plain smell may be detected without a warrant."
Id. at 537 (quoting United States v. Roby, 122 F.3d 1120, 1124-1125 (8th Cir.l997)(in-ternal citations omitted)).
For two main reasons, we conclude that Nelson neither controls nor conflicts with our decision in this case holding the dog sniff of Rabb's house to be violative of the Fourth Amendment. First, although we recognize and are in accord with the principle that "the occupants of a hotel room are entitled to the protection of the Fourth Amendment" to much the same degree as occupants of a house, this principle is not without its limitations. See Hoffa v. United States, 385 U.S. 293, 301, 87 S.Ct. 408, 17 L.Ed.2d 374 (1966). As the Fifth Circuit stated in United States v. Jackson, 588 F.2d 1046 (5th Cir.1979):
Despite the fact that an individual's Fourth Amendment rights do not evaporate when he rents a motel room, the extent of the privacy he is entitled to reasonably expect may very well diminish. For although a motel room shares many of the attributes of privacy of a home, it also possesses many features which distinguish it from a private residence: "A private home is quite different from a place of business or a motel cabin. A home owner or tenant has the exclusive enjoyment of his home, his garage, his barn or other buildings, and also the area under his home. But a transient occupant of a motel room must share corridors, sidewalks, yards, and trees with the other occupants. Granted that a tenant has standing to protect the room he occupies, there is nevertheless an element of public or shared property in motel surroundings that is entirely lacking in the enjoyment of one's home."
Id. at 1052 (quoting Marullo v. United States, 328 F.2d 361, 363 (5th Cir.1964)).
Put very simply, a hotel room may be nearly identical to a house for Fourth Amendment purposes, but a hotel room is not a house, as it is neither as private nor as sacrosanct. As a result, the fact that the Fifth District held that a trained canine's dog sniff of a hotel room does not violate the Fourth Amendment because the hotel corridor is a public area, does not conflict with our conclusion that the dog sniff of a private house, such as Rabb's, violates the Fourth Amendment. This is so for the same reasons of "place" discussed above when determining that Place is not dispositive of this case, as it addressed public airports rather than private houses.
Furthermore, the distinction between unaided and technologically-enhanced surveillance is not one without a difference. The Fourth Amendment "protects conversations that cannot be heard except by means of artificial enhancement." United States v. Mankani, 738 F.2d 538, 543 (2d Cir.1984) (citation omitted). The Second Circuit explained the rationale behind this rule:
The reason for this is evident. The risk of being overheard is a given in modern life, and any time people speak to one another they necessarily assume that risk. "But as soon as electronic surveil lance comes into play, the risk changes crucially. There is no security from that kind of eavesdropping, no way of mitigating the risk, and so not even a residuum of true privacy." Absent a warrant, this kind of investigative intrusion bypasses the safeguards of a neutral magistrate's predetermination of probable cause.
Id. at 543 (internal citations omitted).
Because of the similarities drawn earlier in this opinion between the use of the thermal imager in Kyllo and the dog sniff in Rabb's case, it would be difficult to posit that the rationale of Mankani does not apply to Rabb's case. The risk of flowers growing in one's house being smelled by the neighbors may be a "given in modern life," but there is no way to mitigate the risk of using dog sniffs where law enforcement unaided would be unable to smell illegal drugs growing in a house. Just like an individual would never be able to soften his voice enough to mitigate the risk of intrusive surveillance, he would never be able to soften the smells of his house enough to avoid detection by the ultra-sensitive noses of dogs. To reach any other conclusion recalls the disturbing use of robot-spiders (an emblem blending both the technological advances of Kyllo and the animal senses of Rabb) to detect fugitives who softened their identities by retinal transplantation in Minority Report (Dreamworks 2002), or similar scenarios in virtually any other dystopic science fiction film. After all, the fact that conduct in a house, such as growing marijuana, is not constitutionally protected, does not mitigate the Fourth Amendment violation that occurs where law enforcement uses sensory enhancement to intrude across the "firm line" at the door of a house and into its "intimate details." As a result, the Fifth District's decision in Nelson is not dispositive of this case or in conflict with this case.
Now that we have concluded that law enforcement's use of a dog sniff at Rabb's door constituted an unreasonable and illegal search, we must consider what impact the illegality of the search has on the validity of the subsequent search warrant for Rabb's house. It is axiomatic that evidence resulting from an illegal search, such as a dog sniff of a house, cannot be the basis of probable cause supporting a subsequent search warrant. See State v. Morsman, 394 So.2d 408, 410 (Fla.l981)(citing Purcell v. State, 325 So.2d 83 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976)). Additionally, for the reasons stated by the trial court, we do not- believe than any of the independent and lawfully obtained evidence in this case establishes the probable cause necessary to support a warrant. See State v. Hun-wick, 434 So.2d 1000, 1001 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983). Therefore, the issuance of the search warrant for Rabb's house was in error, because the warrant was tainted by the dog sniff and unredeemed by independent lawful evidence. Consequently, the evidence obtained from the search of Rabb's house was "fruit of the poisonous tree" subject to suppression by the trial court. See Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 484-485, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963).
In sum, we hold that the trial court did not err by granting Rabb's motion to suppress where the marijuana seized was initially discovered by a dog sniff at the exterior of his house. Based on the reasonable expectation of privacy recognized by both law and society to be associated with a house, law enforcement's use of the dog sniff without a warrant constituted a search that was not permitted by the Fourth Amendment. Furthermore, absent the dog sniff, there was no independent lawful evidence establishing probable cause to issue a warrant, irremediably tainting the evidence obtained by the search of Rabb's house based on an invalid warrant. As a result, we affirm.
AFFIRMED.
FARMER, C.J., concurs.
GROSS, J., dissents with opinion.
. The reader will notice that Rabb was referred to as John Brown in the Affidavit and Application for a Search Warrant. There is no dispute that John Brown is the same individual as James Rabb.
. The affidavit indicated that the dog alerted at the door of Rabb's residence. However, Detective Taranu testified that the dog tugged as he was walking along the street. At a motion to suppress hearing, it is properly the trial court's responsibility to weigh evidence and determine matters of credibility, such as resolving seemingly conflicting evidence. Brown v. State, 352 So.2d 60, 61 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977).
. This Fifth Circuit decision rendered prior to the October 1, 1981 circuit split is binding precedent for the Eleventh Circuit. See United States v. Zuniga-Salinas, 952 F.2d 876, 878 (5th Cir.1992).