Case Name: STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Donald MONINGER, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2007-01-05
Citations: 957 So. 2d 2
Docket Number: No. 2D05-4568
Parties: STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Donald MONINGER, Appellee.
Judges: SALCINES, J., Concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 957
Pages: 2–12

Head Matter:
STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Donald MONINGER, Appellee.
No. 2D05-4568.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.
Jan. 5, 2007.
Rehearing Denied Feb. 26, 2007.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Chandra Waite Dasrat, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellant.
Mark A. Goettel of Mark A. Goettel, P.A., New Port Richey, for Appellee.

Opinion:
SILBERMAN, Judge.
The State appeals an order suppressing evidence in the prosecution of Donald Moninger for lewd or lascivious molestation, capital sexual battery, and two counts of lewd or lascivious battery. Because the trial court properly suppressed the chal lenged evidence, two used condoms, we affirm the suppression order.
In his motion to suppress, Moninger alleged that on July 8, 2004, Deputy White, Detective Ewald, and Child Protective Investigator (CPI) Morgan responded to a sexual battery complaint at Moninger's residence. The alleged victim is Moninger's fifteen-year-old daughter. The motion stated that the daughter spoke with Detective Ewald and told him that "condoms were used in the bedroom" of the residence. Further, the daughter, upon Detective Ewald's prompting, went into the residence and returned with two condoms. The motion contended that Moninger "did not consent to the unlawful entrance and removal of the condoms" and that the daughter "was acting as an instrument of the police and, as such, Detective Ewald searched the Defendant's residence without permission of the Defendant." Based on his contention that the law enforcement officers improperly obtained the condoms, Moninger sought an order suppressing the condoms as evidence.
The trial court conducted a hearing on the motion to suppress. Although witnesses were available to testify at the hearing, the parties stipulated to the facts and did not present any testimony or other evidence. The stipulated facts expanded on the allegations of Moninger's motion. Deputy White and Detective Ewald responded to Moninger's residence, where his daughter also lived, to investigate an allegation of child molestation. CPI Morgan was present and was going to remove the daughter from the residence to shelter care. While outside the residence, Detective Ewald conducted a brief interview with the daughter and asked her if there was any evidence to substantiate her claim. She responded that she believed there were "a couple of condoms in the house."
Detective Ewald and CPI Morgan "told the victim to go inside and start packing" her belongings because she was going to be removed from the home. They also told her that if she wanted to, she could "grab the condom. And, she did grab the condoms on her way out after she had packed her belongings." The daughter retrieved two condoms from the trash can in Moninger's room inside the residence and gave them to the detectives. The daughter had "access" to Moninger's room, and the room had never been locked. Finally, although "[t]he detectives had never been told not to enter the premises prior to the obtaining of the condoms" and consent was never "denied to Detective Ewald prior to the detective telling the victim to go inside and start packing," the stipulation confirmed that "consent was never requested from the Defendant!.]"
At the conclusion of the hearing, the parties agreed to provide memoranda to the trial court. The legal issue presented to the court was whether the daughter was acting as an instrument or agent of the State when she retrieved the used condoms from the trash can in Moninger's bedroom and gave them to the detectives. In its memorandum in opposition to the motion to suppress, the State acknowledged as undisputed facts that Detective Ewald spoke with the daughter while Deputy White stood by with Moninger and that Detective Ewald gave the daughter "a bag in which to place the condoms if she chose to obtain them."
In its order granting the motion to suppress the condoms, the trial court stated, in pertinent part, as follows:
Stipulated facts include the investigating officers not only telling the alleged victim to go into Defendant's residence to get her belongings but also telling her that she could remove two condoms that the defendant had allegedly used. In addition, the State now acknowledges in its memorandum that the officers also gave the child a bag in which to place the condoms. One can hardly imagine a stronger hint, whether made to an adult or a child. If the officers had simply obtained a search warrant or told the victim to go into the residence and get her belongings and she had, with no encouragement by the officers, removed the condoms on her own, the Court would have seen no violation of the defendant's constitutional protections against State action. Unfortunately, the actions of a private individual, such as the alleged victim in this case, become actions of the government when, as in this case, the government becomes involved "... indirectly as an encourager of the private citizen's actions . ". Treadway v. State, 534 So.2d 825 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988). Clearly, the officers "encouraged" the child/victim to obtain the evidence that they could not have validly obtained without permission or a proper search warrant. The record reflects no private interests that were furthered by the alleged victim's actions in removing the condoms and delivering them to the investigating officers. Although the State urges the court to find that there was a private interest of the alleged victim which was furthered by the alleged victim's actions, it does not seem logical to find that the private interests of the victim in obtaining corroboration of the alleged offense is any different than the State's interest in obtaining evidence of the crimes the State has charged. It is clear that the decision to remove the alleged victim from the defendant's home had been made prior to her entering the home and obtaining the condoms. She was told by Child Protective Investigator Morgan to enter the home for purposes of obtaining her belongings because she was being removed from the defendant's home. This decision having already been made, the alleged victim needed no corroboration to further the goal the State assigns to her. Furthermore, there is no evidence in the record that the alleged victim was motivated by anything other than the obvious "hints" provided by Det. Ewald.
(Second and third emphasis added.)
The trial court also noted there was no evidence that Moninger, who was present at the scene, had consented to any search, and there was no evidence that the daughter gave consent or was asked to give consent. Based on the facts that were presented and the issue that was squarely before the trial court — whether the daughter was acting as an instrument or agent of the State — the court granted the motion to suppress.
In this appeal, the State argues that the daughter did not act as a government agent but acted out of her own free will. The State suggests that she gave the condoms to the officers to further her own purpose, that is, to substantiate her claim of illegal sexual contact with Moninger. The stipulated facts do not support the State's argument that the daughter was not an instrument or agent of the State or that she retrieved the condoms for her own purpose. In Treadway v. State, 534 So.2d 825, 827 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988), the court recognized that "while a wrongful search and seizure by a private party does not violate the fourth amendment, when a private party acts as an 'instrument or agent' of the state in effecting a search and seizure, fourth amendment interests are implicated." The court explained that "[t]he government must be involved either directly as a participant or indirectly as an encourager of the private citizen's actions before we deem the citizen to be an instrument of the state." Id. (quoting United States v. Walther, 652 F.2d 788, 791 (9th Cir.1981)). In State v. Iaccarino, 767 So.2d 470, 475 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000), this court stated as follows:
The test for determining whether private individuals are agents of the government is whether, in consideration of the circumstances, the individuals acted as instruments of the state. To determine whether a private individual acts as an instrument of the state, courts look to (1) whether the government was aware of and acquiesced in the conduct; and (2) whether the individual intended to assist the police or further his own ends.
(Citations omitted.)
Here, the facts of record establish that the daughter's action in retrieving the condoms was precipitated by Detective Ewald's suggestions and encouragement and that the interest being fulfilled was the law enforcement interest in obtaining evidence to support a criminal prosecution. The daughter was being removed from the home based on what the officers already knew, and nothing suggests that the daughter, of her own motivation, considered taking the condoms to substantiate that she had been molested or for any private purpose. As recognized in Tread-way, the Fourth Amendment is implicated if the sole purpose of a private search is to further a government interest. 534 So.2d at 827. The stipulated facts do not suggest that the daughter retrieved the condoms for any purpose other than the officers' desire to acquire evidence without the necessity of a search warrant or requesting and obtaining consent. Indeed, nothing in the record suggests that the daughter would even have thought to retrieve the condoms without the detective's suggestion that she take that specific course of action. Because the record supports the trial court's conclusion that the daughter was acting as an instrument or agent of the State, we conclude that the trial court properly granted Moninger's motion to suppress the condoms.
The State also asserts that the daughter "had joint-ownership rights over the used condoms if the condoms were used during sexual contact in which she was a party," that "she still had joint control over the house and could have legally provided the condoms" to the officers, and that Moninger "had no legitimate expectation of privacy." However, the State makes these assertions in bare-bones fashion, without record support or citation of authority. The stipulation indicated that the condoms were in Moninger's bedroom and that the daughter had "access" to the bedroom, but no evidence was presented as to the daughter's "right" to enter Moninger's room and to remove the condoms from the trash can. There was also no evidence that the daughter shared that room with Moninger, that she had "joint control" over the house, or that she had "joint-ownership" of the used condoms. In its memorandum in opposition to the motion to suppress, the State suggested that the daughter "had authority to consent to law enforcement entry, as well as law enforcement search, if either had been requested." (Emphasis added.) In its order, the trial court correctly noted that there was "no evidence that the alleged victim gave any consent to search to the officers or was requested to do so[.]"
It is well established that the officers would need a search warrant or an excep tion to the warrant requirement, such as consent, to validly enter Moninger's residence to search for evidence. See V.H. v. State, 903 So.2d 321, 322 (Fla. 2d DCA 2005). Here, the officers could have sought a search warrant or could have asked for Moninger's consent to search, but they chose neither option. Further, there is no evidence that the daughter consented or had authority to consent to a search of the home, the bedroom, or the trash can in the bedroom. The evidence is undisputed that the daughter was told by law enforcement to go into the home to pack her belongings. At the same time, Detective Ewald told her she could "grab" the condoms if she wanted to, and he gave her a bag in which to put the condoms.
Although the dissenting opinion suggests that the victim could not have been a State agent, it gives short shrift to the stipulated facts: the daughter reentered the home at the direction of law enforcement; law enforcement encouraged her to enter Moninger's room to get the condoms; and law enforcement gave her a bag in which to place the evidence that law enforcement believed would assist them in proving criminal conduct.
As to the burden of proof, the dissent suggests that Moninger did not meet his burden to show that the seizure of evidence was as a result of unreasonable government action. The test in a case such as this is whether the person who obtained the evidence was acting as an agent or instrumentality of law enforcement. See Treadway, 534 So.2d at 827. The Treadway court recognized' that when "a dual purpose for the search exists such that the private person is also furthering his own ends, the search generally retains its private character." Id. In Treadway, the court determined that a dual purpose existed when an insurance agent provided records to the Florida Comptroller's Office. Id. The agent worked for Treadway, and the agent accessed his own investment file, although the office rules prohibited the agent from reviewing those files. The documents assisted in a prosecution for organized fraud and grand theft, but the facts established that the agent had his own reasons to look into the files, including concern over his investment and to determine whether the investment program was being handled properly. Id. at 826.
Nothing in the record here suggests that the daughter retrieved the condoms to further her own purposes. Although the dissent speculates as to possible private purposes — perhaps the daughter might have wanted the condoms as evidence for a possible civil suit against her father or for use in a dependency action — the record does not reflect that the daughter considered retrieving the condoms for any private purpose. Instead, the State stipulated to facts that reflect the daughter acted solely at the direction and encouragement of law enforcement. Specifically, the daughter retrieved the condoms at the suggestion of Detective Ewald and delivered the condoms to him. Further, the daughter was already being removed from the home to shelter care when Detective Ewald suggested that she gather the evidence. Notably, this court in Iaccarino stated that the determination involves "whether the individual intended to assist the police or further his own ends." 767 So.2d at 475 (emphasis added). Thus, the intent of the individual is a necessary consideration. Here, the stipulated facts reflect that the daughter's intent was to obtain evidence for Detective Ewald.
Finally, the dissent suggests that suppression of the condoms does not serve to suppress DNA evidence on the condoms. The State has not made this argument, and the record does not reflect that any DNA evidence is, in fact, contained in or on the condoms. Further, it seems self-evident that the entire purpose of Moninger's motion is to challenge the legality of law enforcement's seizure of the condoms and whatever evidence is in or on them. In any event, our review is to determine whether the trial court properly resolved the issue presented to it, based on the record evidence and the parties' arguments, and not to speculate regarding other theories or strategies that might have been pursued.
Therefore, because the trial court properly granted Moninger's motion to suppress, we affirm the suppression order.
Affirmed.
SALCINES, J., Concurs.
ALTENBERND, J., Dissents with opinion.
. The State amended the information after the suppression hearing to add the count of capital sexual battery and the two counts of lewd or lascivious battery.
. The State cites no authority for the proposition that the victim of a crime becomes a joint owner of an instrument or property used by the perpetrator during the commission of a crime. For example, does a stabbing victim become a joint owner of the knife because the victim's blood is on it?
. There is no explanation why the officers did not procure a search warrant. Deputy White was standing outside the residence with Mon-inger. Detective Ewald could have applied for a search warrant while Deputy White stayed with Moninger.