Law Updates for August 21, 2009

Hatcher, 34 FLW 1643, 1st DCA, Constructive possession. Officers who observed the def and another man sitting at a table located in the front of a residence between a fence and the street in an area known as a high narcotics area lacked pc to arrest the def for possession of the baggie of cocaine sitting on top of the table within 12 to 18 inches of the def where there was no evidence that the baggie was the def's, that the def exercised dominion and control of the baggie, or that the def knew of the baggie's illicit contents prior to the arrest. Error to deny motion to suppress.

Walden, 34 FLW 1162, 1st DCA, Hearsay, 911 call. Error to admit part of call as hearsay where the robbery victim asserted that another person just saw the def get into a red Cadillac. Error was harmless where both the victim and the witness, whose statements were relayed, were cross-examined at trial and witness testified he never actually saw the robber enter the car and could not see the occupants of the vehicle because it was dark and the vehicle was 200 to 300 feet away.

Pearson, 34 FLW 1664, 1st DCA, Writ of prohibition. Speedy trial, in Georgia, error to deny motion for discharge where def was arrested on Florida warrant and booked into a county jail in foreign state pending extradition back to Fla. Def was subsequently charged with and convicted of a crime in foreign state and jailed there as a result. Def was brought back and charged with information 579 days after the initial arrest in the foreign state. Speedy trial period not tolled where no information or indictment was filed in Fla. Failure to hold trial in Fla not attributable to the def , where state was always aware of def's incarceration and could have filed information prior to the def's return to Fla, thereby removing the case from the speedy trial rule.



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