Opinion ID: 1813641
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Circumstantial-Evidence Case

Text: The facts here emphasize the importance of the invalidly obtained saliva swabs, which were the only items of evidence that enabled law enforcement to connect Mr. Wyche to the burglary involved in this case. The majority castigates me for considering facts not presented during the suppression hearing and inaccurately implies that the only relevant fact presented during the hearing was the bare allegation that the police investigators used trickery to obtain Wyche's DNA. Such allegations are contrary to the facts presented in the suppression materials. In relevant part, Wyche's suppression motion stated: On December 11, 2001[,] Investigator VanBennekom was investigating an unsolved sexual assault and thought [Wyche] may be a suspect. After [Wyche] was arrested/detained by another officer on a warrant for a[n] [unrelated] violation of probation in Columbia County[,] ... Investigator VanBennekom gained [Wyche's] consent to give the saliva swabs through the use of trickery. During a deposition on September 29, 2003, Investigator VanBennekom stated that the courts had not prohibited the use of trickery at the time he spoke to [Wyche]. He stated that ... he told [Wyche] that he was a suspect in a [fictitious, yet ostensibly genuine] ... burglary at a Winn Dixie. The saliva swab was compared to the samples in Investigator VanBennekom['s] open sexual assault case, where no match was obtained, and at the request of Investigator Moody, Investigator VanBennekom also had FDLE[ [15] ] compare the swab samples to samples from a[n] [actual] burglary at the Pink Magnolia. (Emphasis supplied.) Similarly, during the suppression hearing, counsel for Wyche stated: Officer VanBennekom ... engaged in trickery in order to get [Wyche] to consent to a saliva swab.... [ The sexual-assault] case that [Investigator] VanBennekom was actively investigating [was his concern], [and] he engaged in trickery in order to get Mr. Wyche to consent. VanBennekom was not actively investigating [the actual Pink Magnolia] burglary that we're here on. And the [Winn-Dixie] burglary that he used as a ruse in order to get Wyche to consent was a fictitious burglary .... [T]he alleged incident occurred on December 5th, 2001. While there may have been some suspicion that Mr. Wyche was involved, no warrant was obtained for him at that time. No warrant was obtained [by the Lake City Police] until ... they actually had the DNA. And that occurred roughly in October of 2002.... [T]hey took the DNA results on December 11th [of 2001], seven days after the alleged burglary [at the Pink Magnolia]. They used a ruse to get consent to take those [saliva swabs]. They filed them with FDLE. And roughly ten months later[,] they get the results. Only after they get those DNA results does a warrant go out for Mr. Wyche on this case. Had that been the product of an actual [investigative] discovery, they would have issued the warrant earlier on. But they didn't have any basis beyond vague tips and then the [supposed] connection with this blood.... [ T]here are no eyewitnesses to put my client at the scene on th[e] day of this burglary, [there is only testimony]... that he had been employed there at a prior time. (Emphasis supplied.) Thus, the suppression motion and hearing disclose the dispositive facts upon which my dissent rests: (1) Investigator VanBennekom affirmatively deceived Wychean in-custody suspect who was detained with regard to an unrelated offenseby accusing him of a wholly fictitious, yet ostensibly valid and serious felony; (2) VanBennekom did so for the express purpose of inducing Wyche's consent either expressly or impliedly through the promise of exoneration; (3) the investigation with regard to Wyche's alleged involvement in the Pink Magnolia burglary was purely based upon speculative suspicion (i.e., a hunch), and not upon probable cause or, in my view, even an articulable suspicion; (4) the police investigators had nothing to tie Wyche to this case save for the invalidly obtained saliva swabs; and (5) the police crime shopped until they could tie Wyche's DNA to evidence obtained from some pending investigation. Instead of applying the requisite totality-of-circumstances voluntariness test, which requires a careful sifting of the unique facts of the case at bar, the trial court facially denied Wyche's suppression motion without supplying a single line of legal analysis. Further, this total lack of analysis was directly contrary to the binding, well-reasoned decision of the Fourth District in State v. McCord, 833 So.2d 828 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002), which Wyche had attached to his suppression motion. As explained in my analysis, the facts disclosed during the suppression hearing are sufficient under governing doctrine to warrant the suppression of the saliva-swab evidence in this case. I merely reference additional facts that are present in the record to further communicate the fundamental significance of this dissent: the deceptive police practices endorsed by the majority are contrary to established Fourth and Fifth Amendment precedent, and, if continued, this type of inquisitorial misadventure will lead to the wholesale abandonment of a central aspect of our accusatorial system. The factual background that follows is a complete summary of this case. In Lake City, Florida, on either the night of December 4, 2001, or during the early-morning hours of December 5, 2001, someone burglarized a local gift boutique known as the Pink Magnolia. It appears that the perpetrator threw an ornamental duck through a window at the front of the store to gain entry and removed what amounted to sixteen to twenty pieces of 10- and 14-carat gold jewelry, each piece valued at under $100.00. Joyce Lookingbill, a sales clerk, reported the break-in. Officer Mike Adams was the first to respond and the scene was secured. However, the next law enforcement officer to arrive, Investigator Joseph M. Moody, testified that no other officers were present when he arrived and Officer Adams was summoned to return to the Pink Magnolia. Based on his trial testimony, Investigator Moody arrived at the shop between 8:30 and 9 a.m. He entered the shop and collected three samples of what appeared to be drops of blood scattered at various points from the front door of the shop to immediately behind the sales counter. According to a later FDLE analysis, only two of the three samples actually contained blood. Investigator Moody did not take pictures of the crime scene and did not label the individual blood samples to show the location from which they were recovered within the Pink Magnolia; instead, he merely numbered them sequentially based upon what he described as his path from the front door to the sales counter. Other than the testimony of Investigator Moody, there is no clear indication in the record with regard to where the blood was actually located within the shop. Mr. Wyche was a day laborer who had performed yard work at the Pink Magnolia on two or three occasions. He testified below that while he was performing work at that location he cut his hand pulling weeds and, after doing so, entered the Pink Magnolia to request that the owner supply him with gloves. Wyche did not travel more than several feet into the shop when he requested the gloves, so the lack of photographs and evidence-location labels becomes important, as the absence of those items prevented the State from definitively establishing where the sampled blood was located within the Pink Magnolia. There were never any fingerprints recovered from the Pink Magnolia, there were no eye witnesses to the crime, and there is no indication in the record that the police interviewed anyone other than the shop's owner and employees. The jewelry was never recovered, and Investigator Moody neither questioned Mr. Wyche nor recovered any evidence from Wyche. The only significant event contained in the record that led Investigator Moody to include Wyche as a person of interest in the Pink Magnolia burglary was an anonymous phone call received by a Sergeant Ostendorf. Evidently, Sergeant Ostendorf then contacted Investigator Moody and related to Moody the details of the anonymous phone call. The caller allegedly stated that Wyche was in the north end of Lake City attempting to sell jewelry and that Wyche was cut on his arm and bleeding. However, it is important to note that when Moody attempted to corroborate the anonymous tip, he discovered that Wyche was not on the north end of Lake City and that he was not attempting to sell jewelry in that vicinity. [16] Consequently, on this record, the police lacked probable cause, a reasonable, articulable suspicion, or any cause to arrest or detain Mr. Wyche for questioning concerning the Pink Magnolia burglary. See, e.g., State v. Maynard, 783 So.2d 226, 229 (Fla.2001) (Because an anonymous caller's basis of knowledge and veracity are typically unknown, these tips justify a stop only once they are `sufficiently corroborated' by police. (emphasis supplied) (quoting Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 330, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990))); J.L. v. State, 727 So.2d 204, 207 (Fla.1998), aff'd, 529 U.S. 266, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 146 L.Ed.2d 254 (2000) (An anonymous tip can provide the basis for an investigatory stop when the tip, as corroborated by independent police work, exhibits sufficient indicia of reliability to furnish police with a reasonable suspicion that the defendant is engaged in criminal activity. (emphasis supplied) (quoting Butts v. State, 644 So.2d 605, 606 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994))); Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 241-46, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983) (emphasizing the importance of police corroboration of anonymous tips in creating the probable cause necessary to secure a search warrant).