Law Updates for July 9, 2010

Caldwell, 35 FLW 425, Fla. Supreme Court, Miranda. An officer's reading of Miranda during a otherwise consensual search does not always transfer the consensual encounter into an investigatory stop. Reading of Miranda may add to the coercive nature of the encounter sometimes and must be decided on a case by case basis. In this case does not convert the consensual encounter into a seizure. Def not seized before voluntarily entered a police vehicle; confession not a product of an illegal detention.

Gomez, 35 FLW 432, Fla. Supreme Court, Forefeiture, Probable Cause. Seizing property initially does not require that the owner knew, or should have known after reasonable inquiry, that property was employed or likely to be employed in criminal activity.

Tindall, 35 FLW 1449, 4th DCA, Error to adjudicate def guilty of two counts of aggravated kidnapping where charges were based on movement of child victims of sexual battery from front door of the house to a bedroom where the sexual battery occurred and victims were held in the room for as the long as the crime occurred and then released.

Hill, 35 FLW 1455, 3rd DCA, Consent-Investigatory stop. Where one ofc positioned his vehicle directly in front of the def and pointed the vehicle's spotlight on the def, another ofc approached def on foot in a manner that indicated a sense of urgency, and immediately thereafter two other officers joined at the scene. Investigatory stop and not a consensual encounter, no reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, def's consent to search during the stop while the ofc retained his license to run a warrants check was not voluntary.

Lowe, 35 FLW 1463, 5th DCA, Lewd and Lascivious exhibition. Def's actions of placing a dildo in his mouth in the presence of a seven year old child does not constitute sexual activity within the statutory definition. Definition of sexual activity in the statute does not include the simulation of oral sex with an object. Error to deny the motion to dismiss the information.

Downs, 35 FLW 1465, 5th DCA, Sexual Battery on a child, Uncharged crimes. Def was charged with digital penetration of a child. Error to admit evidence of later incidents in which the def came into the bathroom while the victim showered and touched her inappropriately. Not admissible that was inexplicably intertwined with charged crime when two years after the charged crime. Not admissible as separate crime or acts of child molestation where the def had not been given notice of evidence the State intended to offer.


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