Opinion ID: 1584057
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Police Encounter at the Rooming House, Hayward's Statements, and the Issue of Probable Cause

Text: We now examine the evidence of Hayward's statements made both at the rooming house and at the police station, as well as the observations made by the police at the rooming house, to determine if introduction of any of that evidence violated Hayward's constitutional rights. We also examine Hayward's claim that the police had no probable cause to detain him. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and section 12 of Florida's Declaration of Rights guarantee citizens the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. See U.S. Const. amend. IV; art. I, § 12, Fla. Const. Evidence obtained in violation of those constitutional protections is generally excluded. Golphin v. State, 945 So.2d 1174, 1179-80 (Fla.2006). The Fourth Amendment requires all warrantless seizures of a person to be founded upon at least reasonable suspicion that the individual seized is engaged in wrongdoing. See United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 552, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980) (plurality opinion). However, only when the police, by means of physical force or show of authority, [have] in some way restrained the liberty of a citizen is there a seizure of that person. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). Seizures of the person include both formal arrests and seizures that involve only a brief detention short of traditional arrest. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 551, 100 S.Ct. 1870 (quoting United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975)). As the Supreme Court has observed, the inquiry in law enforcement encounter cases is whether there has been an intrusion upon constitutionally protected rights. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 553, 100 S.Ct. 1870 (plurality opinion) (quoting Terry, 392 U.S. at 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868). In Taylor v. State, 855 So.2d 1, 14-15 (Fla.2003), we discussed the three levels of encounter that a person may have with law enforcement: (1) a consensual encounter that involves only minimal police contact during which a citizen may either voluntarily comply with a police officer's requests or choose to ignore them and leave; (2) an investigatory stop as enunciated in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), during which a police officer may detain a citizen temporarily if the officer has a reasonable, well-founded, and articulable suspicion that a person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime; and (3) an arrest, which must be supported by probable cause that a crime has been or is being committed. When determining whether a particular encounter is consensual, the Court must look to the `totality of the circumstances' surrounding the encounter to decide `if the police conduct would have communicated to a reasonable person that the person was free to leave or terminate the encounter.' Taylor, 855 So.2d at 15 (quoting Voorhees v. State, 699 So.2d 602, 608 (Fla.1997)). In order to determine if Hayward's Fourth Amendment rights were violated, we must first determine if and when Hayward was detained. We do so by dividing the police encounter with Hayward into four time frames: (1) the initial encounter when Hayward exited the bathroom into the hallway inside the rooming house; (2) the instance when Detective Flaherty asked Officer Mace to take Hayward outside; (3) the instance outside the rooming house when Hayward asserted that he had actually been robbed and shot, not stabbed; and (4) the official statement made by Hayward at the police station after having been advised of his Miranda rights. We will also discuss whether there was probable cause to detain him and whether his Fourth Amendment rights were violated during any of these police encounters.