Court Opinion

ID: 9351997
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-04 16:03:21.604043+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:57:42.380708
License: Public Domain

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
                            FOURTH DISTRICT

                         STATE OF FLORIDA,
                             Appellant,

                                   v.

                           ROBIN BENDER,
                              Appellee.

                            No. 4D21-2539

                           [January 4, 2023]

   Appeal from the County Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit,
Broward County; Ginger Lerner-Wren, Judge; L.T. Case No. 19-
23295MU10A.

  Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Jessica L.
Underwood, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

    Jacob A. Cohen of Law Offices of Jacob A. Cohen, PLLC, Boca Raton,
for appellee.

KUNTZ, J.

    Robin Bender was charged with one count of Driving under the
Influence in violation of section 316.193(1), Florida Statutes (2019) and
section 316.1934(1), Florida Statutes (2019). The county court granted
Bender’s motion to suppress certain statements made during her arrest
after concluding the statements were obtained in violation the Supreme
Court’s directive in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966). The court
also suppressed Bender’s arrest based on a lack of probable cause. The
State appeals the county court’s order suppressing evidence and
suppressing the arrest. We reverse on both issues.

                              Background

        i. The Crash Investigation, DUI Investigation, and Arrest

   A Florida Highway Patrol officer responded to a crash on the entrance
ramp of the interstate from Oakland Park Boulevard. The officer assigned
to investigate the crash approached the driver’s side of the vehicle and
found Bender in the driver’s seat. The officer asked Bender if she was
okay, and Bender responded that she was shaken up. The officer
concluded the crash was a single-vehicle crash during which Bender’s
vehicle ran off the road, hit a tree, and remained on the tree. Bender was
the only passenger in the vehicle.

    The officer spoke with Bender while she was inside the vehicle, as she
was assisted out of it, and when she was outside. The officer had Bender
sit on the ground for her own safety while the officer conducted the crash
investigation because Bender could not stand. Bender cooperated with
the officer throughout the crash investigation, but the officer never told
Bender she had to respond to questioning. Nor did the officer read Bender
her Miranda rights during the crash investigation.

    As the officer questioned Bender about the crash, the officer “noticed
that [Bender’s] eyes were red and glossy. [Bender] spoke with a slow pace
and she was slow to recall.” The officer observed these things while Bender
was both inside and outside the vehicle. The officer then turned on her
vehicle’s dash cam video and called Bender to come stand in front of the
vehicle. Bender was not restrained, nor was she free to leave. But the
officer did not tell Bender that she was not free to leave.

   The officer told Bender that the crash investigation was complete and
that the officer was starting a DUI investigation. Bender acknowledged
that she understood the officer was conducting a DUI investigation.
Bender told the officer she drank alcohol, but that she did not feel she had
drank a lot. The officer asked “[h]ow many did you drink? Approximately,”
and Bender replied “[o]ne.”

    The officer then notified Bender of the factors that led the officer to open
the DUI investigation: the smell of alcohol on her breath, her car running
off the road and hitting a tree, and her swaying and unbalance as she
walked after exiting the car. Bender agreed to participate in field sobriety
exercises and stated “I’m not going to lie. I had a couple.”

   The officer explained to Bender that for both of their safety, the officer
would transport Bender to a nearby parking lot where the officer would
conduct the exercises. The officer never told Bender that she had to get in
the car, nor did the officer physically escort Bender to the car.

    While in the officer’s car on the way to the parking lot, Bender stated
“Oh, God. I’m so stupid. I’m so stupid.” The officer did not respond
directly to Bender. Instead, the officer was silent and, shortly after,
initiated a new conversation with Bender about where she had been

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travelling. Bender confirmed she was returning to her home in Boca Raton
but could not explain why she was traveling in the wrong direction.

  After conducting the field sobriety exercises, the officer arrested Bender
and placed her in the back of the patrol car. The officer did not read
Bender her Miranda rights but did ask Bender to submit to a breath test
and read implied consent to her.

                       ii. Bender’s Motion to Suppress

   Bender moved to suppress the incriminating statements she made to
the officer because of Florida’s accident report privilege, section
316.066(4), Florida Statutes (2019), and because the officer had not read
Bender her Miranda rights after the officer had concluded the crash
investigation.

    At a hearing on the motion, the State asked Bender to clarify the scope
of her motion because the motion did not specify any particular statements
to suppress. In response, counsel for Bender stated that none of Bender’s
statements made during the crash investigation should be admitted. The
court interjected:

      I think that what Counsel is saying is that the legal issues that
      the case raises may actually be cascading in that it’s not
      limited to statements per se but looking at it more through a
      broader lens in terms of, you know, the legality of the ultimate
      arrest based on various issues. Is that what you’re saying?

   The State later admitted the officer’s dash cam video into evidence.
When Bender’s counsel asked the officer why she questioned Bender about
where she lived, the State stipulated to the suppression of all statements
from the moment when the officer began questioning Bender about where
she lived until the moment that the officer parked in the parking lot. 1

1 We accept the State’s stipulation for purposes of this appeal. But we note that,
in the context of a DUI investigation, a plurality of the United States Supreme
Court has “held that responses to questions such as name, address, height,
weight, eye color, age, and date of birth fell within a ‘routine booking question’
exception to Miranda ‘which exempts from Miranda’s coverage questions to
secure the biographical data necessary to complete booking or pretrial services.’”
Tobiassen v. State, 213 So. 3d 1045, 1047–48 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017) (quoting
Pennsylvania v. Muniz, 496 U.S. 582, 601 (1990)).

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   During closing arguments, the State again said it would concede that
some of Bender’s statements made in response to the officer’s questioning
while she was inside the car were made while she was in police custody
and should be suppressed. But the State argued other statements made
by Bender were spontaneous statements. Those spontaneous statements
included Bender acknowledging that she drank alcohol before driving: “I’m
not going to lie. I had a couple,” and “Oh God. I’m so stupid. I’m so
stupid.”

   The county court found that based on the “totality of the
circumstances,” Bender was not free to leave when the officer informed
Bender that the officer needed to conduct the DUI investigation. The court
found Bender’s detention in the patrol vehicle and removal from the crash
scene was “highly intrusive and tantamount to a ‘de facto arrest’ in
violation of defendant’s Fourth Amendment Rights.” The county court also
found that the officer had to read Bender her Miranda rights as soon as
the crash investigation turned into a criminal investigation. Based on
these conclusions, the county court suppressed Bender’s statements to
the officer and suppressed her arrest based on a lack of probable cause.

                                 Analysis

    i. Using Bender’s Pre-Arrest Statements Does Not Violate Miranda

   The State argues that Bender’s statements to the officer before she was
placed in the patrol car and one statement made inside the car are
admissible because Bender was not yet in custody. Bender responds that
the officer had an affirmative legal duty to read Bender her Miranda rights
as soon as the crash investigation ended and the criminal investigation
began.

   The accident reporting privilege Bender relies on is designed to protect
the right against self-incrimination. Sections 316.066(1) and (2), Florida
Statutes (2019), require the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident to
report the accident. To avoid violating the Fifth Amendment, section
316.066(4) “prohibits the use of communications ‘made by persons
involved in accidents.’” Brackin v. Boles, 452 So. 2d 540, 544 (Fla. 1984).

   Bender argues that the officer’s failure to read Bender her Miranda
rights when the crash investigation ended and the DUI investigation began
renders all statements inadmissible. We disagree that such a bright line
rule applies.

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    The Fifth District has explained that, generally, the interplay between
the accident reporting privilege and the Fifth Amendment can result in
three solutions. Vedner v. State, 849 So. 2d 1207, 1212 (Fla. 5th DCA
2003). First, statements made “pursuant to the requirement to give
information for a crash report required by section 316.066 may not be
used as evidence in civil, criminal or administrative proceedings.” Id.
(citation omitted). Second, if during an accident investigation “a law
enforcement officer seeks to elicit statements of a person who has been
given ‘any indication’ that he or she is required to give accident
information, the officer must advise the person of his or her Miranda
rights.” Id. (citations omitted). Third, “[f]or other law enforcement
encounters associated with vehicular accidents, however, the usual rules
and precepts associated with Miranda seem to apply.” Id. (citations
omitted).

    The officer had announced the criminal DUI investigation was
underway when Bender made the statements at issue. So this was no
longer a crash investigation required by section 316.066 and was an
investigation to which “the usual rules and precepts associated with
Miranda seem to apply.” Id. (citations omitted). We conclude the officer’s
failure to immediately advise Bender of her Miranda rights when the officer
announced a DUI investigation was commencing does not render Bender’s
later statements per se inadmissible. Instead, we must “focus[] on whether
[Bender’s] Fifth Amendment rights were violated.” State v. Norstrom, 613
So. 2d 437, 440 (Fla. 1993).

   In Miranda, the Supreme Court “addressed the problem of how the
privilege against compelled self-incrimination guaranteed by the Fifth
Amendment could be protected from the coercive pressures that can be
brought to bear upon a suspect in the context of custodial interrogation.”
Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 428 (1984) (citing Miranda, 384 U.S.
at 436). Miranda “established four warnings that are required prior to
questioning when a person has been ‘taken into custody or otherwise
deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way.’” Morris v. State,
212 So. 3d 383, 384–85 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017) (quoting Stansbury v.
California, 511 U.S. 318, 322 (1994)).

    But “[t]he safeguards provided by Miranda apply only if an individual is
in custody and subject to interrogation. Where either the custody or
interrogation prong is absent, Miranda does not require warnings.” Gordon
v. State, 213 So. 3d 1050, 1052 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017) (quoting Timmons v.
State, 961 So. 2d 378, 379 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007)).

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   So we focus on whether Bender was in custody and being interrogated
when the statements were made. Those statements can be grouped into
two categories: (1) Bender’s on-scene statements admitting she drank,
claiming she had only “one” drink, and then admitting she “had a couple”;
and (2) her statements made while being transported to the parking lot for
the field sobriety exercises. The State stipulated to the suppression of all
but one of the statements during that transport. The State challenges only
the county court’s suppression of Bender’s unsolicited statement, “Oh
God. I’m so stupid. I’m so stupid.”

    Our analysis is framed by the United States Supreme Court’s decision
in Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 420. In Berkemer, the Supreme Court answered
two questions. First, the state argued that Miranda should not apply when
the police arrest a person for committing a misdemeanor traffic offense.
Id. at 429-33. The Supreme Court rejected that argument and concluded
that the “purposes [of Miranda] are implicated as much by in-custody
questioning of persons suspected of misdemeanors as they are by
questioning of persons suspected of felonies.” Id. at 433.

   Second, the Supreme Court was “obliged to address a second issue
concerning the scope of our decision in Miranda: whether the roadside
questioning of a motorist detained pursuant to a routine traffic stop should
be considered ‘custodial interrogation.’” Id. at 435. The Court explained
that “[f]idelity to the doctrine announced in Miranda requires that it be
enforced strictly, but only in those types of situations in which the
concerns that powered the decision are implicated.” Id. at 437.

    That left the Supreme Court to determine whether Berkemer presented
a situation in which the concerns that powered Miranda were implicated.
In Berkemer, the officer pulled over the defendant and forced him to get
out of his vehicle. Id. at 423. Because the defendant was having difficulty
standing, the officer concluded that he would be charged with a traffic
offense and that his freedom to leave the scene was terminated. Id. But
before taking the defendant into custody, the officer asked the defendant
to perform a field sobriety test. Id. The officer also asked the defendant
whether he had used any intoxicants, a question the defendant answered.
Id. After the defendant answered the questions, the officer arrested him.
Id. The Supreme Court found “nothing in the record that indicates that
[the defendant] should have been given Miranda warnings at any point
prior to the time [the officer] placed him under arrest.” Id. at 441.

   The Fifth District relied on Berkemer when it addressed the same issue
in State v. Burns, 661 So. 2d 842 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995). In Burns, the court
explained that it was just a routine traffic stop. Id. at 844. The defendant

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“was stopped and was asked for his license and registration and to perform
field sobriety tests. The stop was short (eleven minutes), occurred in a
public area, only one officer was present, and the tests were simple.” Id.
The Fifth District concluded that “there [were] no factors which would take
this case outside the holding in Berkemer.” Id.

   Like the defendants in Berkemer and Burns, Bender was not subject to
the restraints of a formal arrest when she made the statements the county
court suppressed. And most of the statements were spontaneous without
any prompting from the officer. Just as the defendants’ statements were
admissible in Berkemer and Burns, Bender’s statements are admissible
here. This includes Bender’s statements on the side of the interstate and
her statement, “Oh God. I’m so stupid. I’m so stupid,” made while
traveling to the parking lot. The county court erred when it suppressed
those statements.      The State stipulated to the suppression of the
remaining statements which Bender had made while traveling to the
parking lot.

  ii. The Court’s Suppression of Bender’s Arrest Exceeded the Scope of
                            Bender’s Request

  We also reverse for another reason: the State was not on notice that
Bender was seeking to suppress the arrest.

    Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.190(g)(2) requires a defendant to
clearly state in a motion to suppress “the particular evidence sought to be
suppressed, the reasons for suppression, and a general statement of the
facts on which the motion is based.” Rule 3.190(h)(2) requires the same
for motions by a defendant to suppress a confession or admission.

   Bender sought to suppress her statements to the officer, but she did
not challenge the arrest. Yet, the county court suppressed the arrest. The
county court’s suppression of Bender’s arrest exceeded the scope of
Bender’s request and did so without notice to the State. Suppressing the
arrest without notice to the State requires reversal of the suppression
order. See, e.g., State v. Christmas, 133 So. 3d 1093, 1096 (Fla. 4th DCA
2014).

                                Conclusion

   The county court’s order suppressing Bender’s statements and her
arrest is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings.

   Reversed and remanded.

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CIKLIN and LEVINE, JJ., concur.

                           *      *        *

    Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

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