Marlo Sheriee Knapp v. State of Florida ( 2022 )


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  •          FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
    STATE OF FLORIDA
    _____________________________
    No. 1D21-1539
    _____________________________
    MARLO SHERIEE KNAPP,
    Appellant,
    v.
    STATE OF FLORIDA,
    Appellee.
    _____________________________
    On appeal from the Circuit Court for Escambia County.
    Linda L. Nobles, Judge.
    September 14, 2022
    PER CURIAM.
    This is Appellant’s direct appeal from her judgment and
    sentence for three counts of possession of a controlled substance
    (fentanyl, alprazolam, and methamphetamine), and one count of
    possession of drug paraphernalia. She pleaded no contest,
    reserving the right to appeal the denial of her dispositive motion
    to suppress the evidence obtained from her vehicle after a traffic
    stop. Her motion to suppress argued that the traffic stop—which
    law enforcement initiated because the rear window of Appellant’s
    small four-door sedan was blocked with shoes, pillows, and
    blankets—was unlawful under section 316.2004(2)(b) of the
    Florida Statutes. This section provides as follows:
    No person shall drive any motor vehicle with any
    sign, poster, or other nontransparent material upon the
    front windshield, side wings, or side or rear windows of
    such vehicle which materially obstructs, obscures, or
    impairs the driver’s clear view of the highway or any
    intersecting highway.
    § 316.2004(2)(b), Fla. Stat. (2021). We have carefully considered all
    of Appellant’s arguments. On the facts presented, we hold that the
    trial court correctly denied the motion to suppress. We affirm
    Appellant’s judgment and sentence.
    I. Facts and Arguments.
    Law enforcement started following Appellant because she was
    leaving a known narcotics-dealing location. A canine search was
    requested two minutes into the traffic stop, and that search yielded
    the drugs and paraphernalia.
    The Sheriff’s deputy testified that he stopped Appellant
    because the rear window of her car was materially obstructed. The
    entire lower half of the rear window was blocked by items
    including a row of several pairs of shoes, with the middle
    particularly blocked with a mound of pillows or blankets up to
    within a short distance from the car’s roof. The deputy testified
    that he believed driving with a materially obstructed rear window
    constituted a traffic infraction in Florida.
    Appellant testified that she could see clearly through the rear
    window despite the items blocking it. Her counsel asserted that
    dash-cam video, which was admitted into evidence and which the
    trial court viewed (as have we), showed that the rear-view mirror
    was visible through the back window, and therefore the
    obstruction did not rise to the level of materiality that the statute
    would prohibit. Appellant’s primary legal argument on this issue
    was, and remains, that section 316.2004(2)(b) should be
    interpreted to prohibit only blocking rear windows with items like
    those listed in the statute—signs, posters, and other
    nontransparent materials—and that such materials would have to
    be “upon” the window and blocking virtually all rearward
    visibility, to violate the statute. So viewing the statute, Appellant
    2
    argued that the Sheriff’s deputy made an unreasonable mistake of
    law that rendered the seized evidence inadmissible.
    After hearing testimony and viewing the dash-cam video, the
    trial court denied the motion to suppress. The court found probable
    cause to stop the vehicle based on the deputy’s reasonable
    observation that the pile of personal effects was materially
    obstructing, obscuring, or impairing Appellant’s view of the road.
    II. Legal Analysis.
    We apply a mixed standard of review to an order denying a
    motion to suppress. We review the trial court’s findings of fact for
    competent, substantial evidence; and we review legal conclusions
    and mixed questions of law and fact de novo. Connor v. State, 
    803 So. 2d 598
    , 607–08 (Fla. 2001).
    Appellant’s interpretation of section 316.2004(2)(b) implicitly
    invokes a canon of statutory interpretation known as ejusdem
    generis. 1 Ignoring the operative verbs used in the statute
    (“obstructs, obscures, or impairs”), Appellant summarily excludes
    from the statute’s reach personal belongings such as those in her
    rear window, because they are not physically like the items listed
    in the statute. Taken to its logical conclusion, this argument would
    require us to analyze the statutory language and resolve any
    potential ambiguities about its scope in light of legislative intent.
    1  Pursuant to this canon, “when a general word or phrase
    follows a list of specifics, the general word or phrase will be
    interpreted to include only items of the same class as those listed.”
    Ejusdem generis, BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY (11th ed. 2019). In
    section 316.2004(2)(b), the general term “nontransparent
    material” is preceded by the specific terms “sign” and “poster.” The
    canon would suggest that “nontransparent material” refers to
    objects similar in nature to signs and posters. Appellant’s resort to
    an ejusdem generis type of argument only serves to bolster our
    holding as to the deputy’s reasonableness, since canons of
    statutory construction become relevant only if a statute is
    ambiguous. State, Dep’t of Revenue v. Lockheed Martin Corp., 
    905 So. 2d 1017
    , 1020 (Fla. 1st DCA 2005).
    3
    We need not parse out the full potential reach of the statute,
    however, because in this Fourth-Amendment context, the
    governing law asks only whether a potentially mistaken
    interpretation of the statute was objectively reasonable. See Heien
    v. North Carolina, 
    574 U.S. 54
    , 61 (2014) (holding that a search
    resulting from an objectively reasonable mistake of law by law
    enforcement does not implicate the exclusionary rule); State v.
    Thomas, 
    207 So. 3d 928
    , 932 n.1 (Fla. 1st DCA 2016) (observing
    that Heien is binding on Florida courts by virtue of the Florida
    Constitution’s conformity clause).
    Even if we assumed the deputy misinterpreted section
    316.2004(2)(b), the mistake would be objectively reasonable. The
    mass of items in Appellant’s rear window would have “obstructed
    obscured, or impaired” Appellant’s rear visibility just as much as—
    if not more than—a sign, poster, or similar object in the same area.
    Based on the deputy’s testimony at the suppression hearing, he
    believed in good faith that the harm the statute was intended to
    prevent was present. It makes no difference whether Appellant
    later claimed she could in fact see just fine through the rear
    window, or whether another observer after the fact thinks she
    could have seen clearly. At the deputy’s decision point, he had
    probable cause to think Appellant committed a traffic infraction.
    The trial court correctly declined to suppress the evidence. 2
    AFFIRMED.
    LEWIS, KELSEY, and NORDBY, JJ., concur.
    2  Suppression based on a mistake of law would also be
    inconsistent with the purpose of the exclusionary rule, which is not
    to redress the constitutional harm of an unlawful search, but
    rather to deter law enforcement from “deliberate, reckless, or
    grossly negligent conduct.” Maldonado v. State, 
    278 So. 3d 708
    , 712
    (Fla. 4th DCA 2019) (holding that exclusion of evidence obtained
    in violation of a clear statute was unnecessary because law
    enforcement’s conduct was negligent at most, and there was no
    indication it was part of a pattern). We see no evidence of
    deliberate misinterpretation or reckless or gross negligence.
    4
    _____________________________
    Not final until disposition of any timely and
    authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
    9.331.
    _____________________________
    Jessica J. Yeary, Public Defender, and David A. Henson, Assistant
    Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.
    Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.
    5
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 21-1539

Filed Date: 9/14/2022

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 9/14/2022