Court Opinion

ID: 9904152
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-11-27 16:21:48.370944+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:21:12.654931
License: Public Domain

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
                      FIFTH DISTRICT

                                    NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO
                                    FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND
                                    DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED

STATE OF FLORIDA,

            Appellant,

 v.                                        Case No. 5D22-21
                                           LT Case No. 2021-CT-000417-E

EDUARDO ARTURO TORRES,

          Appellee.
________________________________/

Opinion filed September 9, 2022

Appeal from the County Court
for Orange County,
Andrew L. Cameron, Judge.

Ashley Moody, Attorney General,
Tallahassee, and Richard Alexander
Pallas, Jr., Assistant Attorney General,
Daytona Beach, for       Appellant.

Stuart I. Hyman, of Stuart I. Hyman,
P.A., Orlando, for Appellee.

LAMBERT, C.J.

      The State of Florida appeals an order entered by the trial court after an

evidentiary hearing granting Eduardo Arturo Torres’s (“the defendant”)
motion to suppress the results of a breathalyzer test because the municipal

law enforcement officer was outside of his geographic jurisdiction when he

requested that the defendant submit to this testing. As the relevant facts in

the case, described below, are not in dispute, our review is de novo. See

State v. Furr, 723 So. 2d 842, 844 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998) (“This court conducts

de novo review of a trial court’s application of the law to undisputed facts in

a motion to suppress.” (citing Butler v. State, 706 So. 2d 100, 101 (Fla. 1st

DCA 1998))). For the following reasons, we reverse the order.

FACTS—

      In the early morning of April 19, 2021, Officer Craig Campbell of the

Winter Park Police Department was on duty in his patrol vehicle when he

conducted a traffic stop of the defendant based upon the defendant’s

hazardous driving pattern. During this stop, Campbell observed that the

defendant smelled of alcohol, his eyes had “a glassy haze,” and he swayed

while exiting his car.

      The defendant admitted to Campbell that he had consumed alcoholic

beverages and thereafter agreed to submit to field sobriety exercises.

Following these exercises, Officer Campbell arrested the defendant for the

offense of driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol to the

                                      2
extent that his normal faculties were impaired (“DUI”). All of the foregoing

events occurred in Winter Park.

     Campbell then transported the defendant from Winter Park to the

Orange County Breath Test Center in Orlando. 1 There, pursuant to Florida’s

implied consent law,2 Campbell asked the defendant to submit to a

breathalyzer test, to which the defendant agreed. The test was administered

by a civilian employee with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department,3 and

     1
         Winter Park and Orlando are both located in Orange County.
     2
        The implied consent law is codified at section 316.1932(1)(a)1.a.,
Florida Statutes (2021), and provides, in pertinent part,

             A person who accepts the privilege extended by the
             laws of this state of operating a motor vehicle within
             this state is, by operating such vehicle, deemed to
             have given his or her consent to submit to an
             approved chemical test or physical test including, but
             not limited to, an infrared light test of his or her breath
             for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content
             of his or her blood or breath if the person is lawfully
             arrested for any offense allegedly committed while
             the person was driving or was in actual physical
             control of a motor vehicle while under the influence
             of alcoholic beverages. The chemical or physical
             breath test must be incidental to a lawful arrest and
             administered at the request of a law enforcement
             officer who has reasonable cause to believe such
             person was driving or was in actual physical control
             of the motor vehicle within this state while under the
             influence of alcoholic beverages.
     3
       The qualifications of this employee to administer the breathalyzer test
are not an issue in this appeal.

                                         3
the results showed that the defendant’s blood alcohol level was at more than

twice the legal limit in the State of Florida. The State later filed an information

formally charging the defendant with DUI.

      Following discovery, the defendant filed a motion to suppress the

breath test results. He asserted that, under section 316.1932(1)(a)1., only a

law enforcement officer could request the administration of a breathalyzer

test and because Officer Campbell was outside the city limits of Winter Park

when he requested the defendant submit to the breath test, at that point,

Campbell was “nothing more than a private citizen.” The defendant argued

that, as a “private citizen,” Campbell was not permitted under the implied

consent statute to obtain or gather breath test evidence but that he

improperly did so under the “color of [his] office”; thus, the results from the

test should be suppressed. See Knight v. State, 154 So. 3d 1157, 1160 (Fla.

1st DCA 2014) (“When an officer unlawfully asserts official authority, either

expressly or implicitly, to gain access to evidence, that evidence must be

suppressed.”).

      Following a hearing held on the defendant’s motion to suppress at

which Campbell was the only witness, the trial court announced that, based

on Phoenix v. State, 455 So. 2d 1024 (Fla. 1984), Mattos v. State, 199 So.

3d 416 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016), and State v. Sills, 852 So. 2d 390 (Fla. 4th DCA

                                        4
2003), it was granting the motion.4 It then contemporaneously signed a

written order suppressing the breath test results. 5

ANALYSIS—

      As a general rule, “municipal law enforcement officers can exercise

their law enforcement powers only within the territorial limits of the

municipality.” Knight, 154 So. 3d at 1159 (citing Nunn v. State, 121 So. 3d

566, 567 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013); State v. Griffis, 502 So. 2d 1356, 1357 (Fla.

5th DCA 1987)). The narrow issue before us is whether, under the facts of

the case, Officer Campbell nevertheless retained the power or authority to

request that the defendant submit to a breathalyzer test as part of an ongoing

DUI investigation when Campbell was outside the territorial limits of his

municipality. Although not fully explained in the written order, the reference

to Officer Campbell being “outside of [his] jurisdiction” essentially determined

that, as argued by the defendant, Campbell was a “private citizen” and thus,

under Florida’s implied consent law, no longer had the authority to make this

      The trial court did not discuss the facts or holdings from these cases
      4

when explaining or announcing its ruling.
      5
        The order signed appears to have been prepared in open court by a
deputy clerk. Although the document is titled “Order,” its format is similar to
a Court Minutes document as it contains other information unrelated to the
suppression hearing. Pertinent to the matter before us, the order simply
states that the “intoxilyzer results” were suppressed for being “outside of
jurisdiction.”

                                       5
request.

      To provide context to the trial court’s ruling, at common law, a private

citizen could arrest an individual who committed a felony or a breach of the

peace6 in his or her presence. Furr, 723 So. 2d at 844–45; State v. Phoenix,

428 So. 2d 262, 265 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982), approved, 455 So. 2d 1024 (Fla.

1984). A law enforcement officer acting outside of the geographic limits of

their municipality has these same arrest powers. Cf. Phoenix, 455 So. 2d at

1025 (observing that “[c]ommon sense dictates that law enforcement

officials, when they are outside their jurisdictions, should not be any less

capable, by virtue of their position, of making a felony arrest than a private

citizen”).

      To be clear, the dispute here is not about Officer Campbell’s DUI arrest

of the defendant in Winter Park. The question is whether the breath test

evidence was properly suppressed because Campbell, post-arrest, while

outside of his territorial jurisdiction, used the color of his office to obtain this

evidence that a private citizen, under the implied consent statute, could not

have obtained. The color of office doctrine precludes a law enforcement

officer who is outside of their territorial jurisdiction from using the power or

color of the office to observe unlawful activity or to gain access to evidence

      A DUI is considered a crime involving a breach of the peace. See
      6

Edwards v. State, 462 So. 2d 581, 582–83 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985).

                                         6
that would not be available to a similarly-situated private citizen.          See

Phoenix, 455 So. 2d at 1025.

      This doctrine, however, is not without its exceptions. One exception,

as argued by the State, allows a municipal officer to continue to act or

investigate outside of his or her geographic jurisdiction if the subject matter

of the officer’s investigation originates inside their city limits. Knight, 154 So.

3d at 1159; Nunn, 121 So. 3d at 568. 7 The State contends that this exception

applies and the trial court erred in granting the motion to suppress because

the subject matter of Officer Campbell’s DUI investigation originated within

his jurisdiction of Winter Park. Thus, the State argues that Campbell was

lawfully permitted to continue his investigation at the Breath Test Center in

Orlando and request that the defendant submit to a breath test.

      The abbreviated reference in the written order to being “outside [of his]

jurisdiction” and the trial court’s reliance on Phoenix, Mattos, and Sills in its

oral pronouncement granting the defendant’s motion to suppress indicate

that the court necessarily determined that the above exception to the color

      7
        Another exception is that an officer may exercise their authority
outside of the territorial jurisdiction if in “fresh pursuit.” See Moncrieffe v.
State, 55 So. 3d 736, 740 (Fla. 4th DCA 2011) (recognizing that a municipal
law enforcement officer may arrest an offender outside the boundaries of the
municipality when acting in fresh pursuit). The parties agree that the fresh
pursuit exception does not apply here.

                                        7
of office doctrine did not apply. As we explain below, we conclude that it

does.

        We begin our analysis with an examination of the three cases relied on

by the trial court, which we find to be distinguishable from the facts in our

case. First, the Florida Supreme Court’s holding in Phoenix was that the

color of office doctrine did not bar law enforcement officers from making a

citizen’s arrest outside of their jurisdiction, even after they had identified

themselves as police officers, because the officers had not yet asserted their

official positions for any other purpose. 455 So. 2d at 1024–25. Phoenix is

inapposite here because Officer Campbell did not make a citizen’s arrest.

        Next, in Mattos, the defendant was arrested for committing a felony

DUI. 199 So. 3d at 418. The offense both originated and was observed by

the arresting municipal law enforcement officer outside of the officer’s

geographic jurisdiction.     Id.   Following the trial court’s denial of the

defendant’s motion to suppress “all written and oral statements made [by

him] to the police or other state agents,” the defendant tendered a no contest

plea to the charge but with a reservation of rights regarding the denial of his

suppression motion. Id.

        On appeal, the Fourth District Court reversed that part of the trial

court’s order that failed to suppress the post-arrest statements made by the

defendant after the officer attempted to have the defendant submit to a

                                       8
breathalyzer test. Id. at 421. The court concluded that the officer had made

a citizen’s arrest and that once the officer began conducting a DUI

investigation following the arrest, he was acting under the color of law in that

he was seeking evidence that could only have been available to him in his

capacity of a law enforcement officer. Id. at 420–21.

      The facts here differ significantly from Mattos. The DUI in Mattos

originated and was observed by the municipal officer outside of the city limits.

As such, and as noted by our sister court, the officer effected a citizen’s

arrest and could not thereafter, as part of a continuing DUI investigation, use

the color of his office to request that the defendant submit to a breath test

under the implied consent law. In contrast, Officer Campbell did not make a

citizen’s arrest as the defendant’s DUI originated in and was observed by

Campbell within the city limits of Winter Park.

      Lastly, in Sills, the defendant was arrested for committing a crime

within the municipal law enforcement officer’s territorial jurisdiction. 852 So.

2d at 391. The officer obtained additional evidence against the defendant

through a search of his residence that was located outside of the officer’s

jurisdiction. Id. The defendant moved to suppress this evidence, which the

State opposed, arguing the same exception to the color of law doctrine as

raised by the defendant here. Id. The trial court granted the defendant’s

motion, and the State appealed. Id. at 391–92.

                                       9
      The Fourth District rejected the State’s argument and affirmed the trial

court’s order. Id. at 394. The court explained that the evidence obtained by

the municipal officer at the defendant’s residence outside of his geographic

jurisdiction pertained to a separate crime that had not only originated outside

of the officer’s jurisdiction, but was also wholly unrelated to the crime for

which the defendant had been first arrested. Id. at 393.

      The facts in Sills materially differ from the present case. Simply stated,

the breath test evidence obtained by Officer Campbell outside of his

municipality was directly related to the arrest and ongoing investigation for

the DUI committed by the defendant within Campbell’s jurisdiction.

      We hold that the ongoing investigation exception to the color of office

doctrine applies here. Officer Campbell arrested the defendant because he

had probable cause to believe that the defendant committed the crime of DUI

within Campbell’s municipality. We find that the color of office doctrine did

not preclude him, as part of his ongoing investigation that originated inside

the municipal city limits, from then taking the defendant to the Breath Test

Center in Orlando and requesting that he submit to a breath test.

Accordingly, we reverse the order suppressing the breath test evidence

obtained in Orlando. In doing so, we note our agreement with the decision

of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island where, in a case also involving a

                                      10
municipal law enforcement officer obtaining a breath test from a DUI suspect

outside of the officer’s municipality, the court wrote:

            In this case, [the defendant] had been lawfully
            arrested, based upon probable cause, and was in the
            legitimate custody of the [arresting police
            department]. It was only while acting in accordance
            with their duty to gather and preserve evidence for
            use at trial, that the officers drove [the defendant] to
            [a neighboring city] for a Breathalyzer test. We are
            thus satisfied that the [arresting police officer] acted
            appropriately and did not relinquish lawful custody of
            their prisoner at the town line. This conclusion rests
            upon the distinction between an arrest and seizure of
            a suspect outside a municipality’s borders—an
            authority that is limited in scope and recognized only
            in    narrowly-defined       circumstances—and the
            extraterritorial transport of a prisoner who is in lawful
            custody, for the performance of legitimate law
            enforcement duties, which we sanction today.

State ex rel. Town of Portsmouth v. Hagan, 819 A.2d 1256, 1261 (R.I.

2003).8

      Lastly, because we believe that the factual scenario that occurred here

is a recurring one faced by municipal law enforcement officers during DUI

investigations, we certify to the Florida Supreme Court the following question

of great public importance:

      8
       See also Pickering v. State, 412 S.W. 3d 143, 150 (Ark. 2012) (citing
with approval the reasoning employed by the Rhode Island Supreme Court
in Hagan and holding that the deputies’ actions in transporting the defendant
to a neighboring county for the purpose of administering a breathalyzer test
were both reasonable and lawful).

                                       11
         DOES A MUNICIPAL LAW ENFORCEMENT
         OFFICER WHO HAS LAWFULLY ARRESTED A
         SUSPECT FOR COMMITTING THE OFFENSE OF
         DUI WITHIN THE OFFICER’S TERRITORIAL
         JURISDICTION    HAVE    THE    CONTINUED
         AUTHORITY OF HIS OR HER OFFICE TO
         REQUEST THAT THE SUSPECT SUBMIT TO
         BREATH TESTING UNDER FLORIDA’S IMPLIED
         CONSENT LAW WHEN THE REQUEST AND THE
         TESTING TAKE PLACE OUTSIDE OF THE CITY
         LIMITS OF THE OFFICER’S MUNICIPALITY?

    REVERSED; QUESTION CERTIFIED.

EDWARDS and HARRIS, JJ., concur.

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