Criminal law -- Search and seizure -- Investigatory stop -- Reasonable suspicion -- Where law enforcement officer initiated traffic stop after determining that the registered owner of vehicle had an outstanding warrant, officer asked defendant to step out of truck with his driver's license, and once defendant started exiting vehicle, officer knew he was not the registered owner because of his race, officer's actions in pursuing defendant, who fled in response to police presence, were reasonable given defendant's abandonment of a vehicle he clearly did not own on a public roadway, officer's knowledge that defendant was not the owner of vehicle, and defendant's flight from scene -- Motion to suppress properly denied     33 Fla. L. Weekly D1555b

Criminal law -- Search and seizure -- Open view -- Trial court did not apply correct law in determining that law enforcement officers did not have probable cause to believe, based on their training and experience in the detection of illegal narcotics, that the substance they saw in open view on the seat inside defendant's vehicle was cocaine -- Trial court apparently granted motion to suppress on ground that officers, despite training and experience in illegal drug detection, simply could not distinguish cocaine from any other white powdery substance -- Proper standard is whether “the facts available to the officer would lead a reasonable man of caution to believe that certain items may be contraband” -- Error to grant motion to suppress cocaine and other drugs discovered in defendant's wallet after he was arrested     33 Fla. L. Weekly D1559a

Criminal law -- Capital sexual battery -- Sexual activity with child -- Child neglect -- Post conviction relief -- Error to summarily deny certain claims based on conclusion that claims were conclusively refuted solely by statement of facts contained in defendant's initial brief in his direct appeal -- Statement of facts in brief cannot be relied upon as an accurate and complete reflection of evidence that was presented at trial -- Speedy trial -- Claim that speedy trial time had run on charge of capital sexual battery of defendant's daughter was not conclusively refuted by investigation report, which revealed that defendant had been arrested in 1995 based on allegations made by defendant's two nieces that involved the nieces and defendant's daughter and which stated that a determination was made, as to the daughter, that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute defendant at that time -- Report did not indicate whether determination not to prosecute defendant for offenses involving his daughter was made before or after defendant's arrest -- Counsel -- Ineffectiveness -- Claims that counsel was ineffective for failing to present certain evidence or call specific available witnesses who could have provided admissible testimony contradicting, impeaching, or otherwise calling into question the victim's testimony regarding sexual abuse were facially sufficient and were improperly denied based on statement of facts in initial brief in defendant's direct appeal -- Claims that counsel was ineffective for failing to seek to sever charge of child neglect from more serious charges of sexual battery and sexual activity with a child were not conclusively refuted by record -- Claim that counsel was ineffective for failing to effectively cross-examine state's medical expert at trial was not conclusively refuted by record, as there was no transcript of expert's trial testimony -- Remand for further proceedings    33 Fla. L. Weekly D1501a

Criminal law -- Driving under influence -- Discovery -- Source code for Intoxilyzer 5000 which is breathalyzer used in defendants' cases -- Uniform Law to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from Within or Without a State in Criminal Proceedings can be used to compel production of documents/source codes where the request is for testimony and production of documents -- Although prior decision has prohibited use of Uniform Law to obtain production of documents, Uniform Law authorizes request for testimony accompanied by request for production of documents -- Source code for Intoxilyzer 5000 was not shown to be material within the meaning of section 942.03, Florida Statutes     33 Fla. L. Weekly D1541a

Criminal law -- Evidence -- Statements of defendant -- Trial court erred in denying motion to suppress statement defendant made to detectives and assistant state attorney during plea negotiations -- Defendant's statements were inadmissible as statements made during plea negotiations where defendant made his statement with subjective expectation to negotiate a plea and defendant reasonably expected that his statement was beginning of a plea bargaining process, given totality of objective circumstances -- Neither Criminal Procedure Rule 3.172(i) nor Section 90.410, Florida Statutes, require that a plea bargain be completed or that written agreement be signed before negotiations can be excluded from evidence -- Error in admission of statement was not harmless
33 Fla. L. Weekly D1503b

Criminal law -- Evidence -- Impeachment -- No error in trial court's exclusion of reference to false police report filed by victim in unrelated matter -- Plain language of section 90.610, Florida Statutes, authorizes impeachment with only prior convictions -- Court declined to adopt false reporting exception to that general rule    33 Fla. L. Weekly D1512a

Criminal law -- Evidence -- Statements of juvenile defendant -- Error to suppress recorded statement given by minor defendant where defendant freely executed Miranda rights waiver form, and both the recording and the testimony at the motion to suppress indicated that he knowingly, voluntarily, and sufficiently waived his rights --
Perfunctory verbal description of written rights waiver form does not mean that defendant did not voluntarily waive his rights, although better practice would be for officers to read entire form out loud, or have defendant do it, and make sure that defendant can read and in fact understands his rights and is willing to waive them -- Court concludes that, under totality of circumstances, defendant's waiver of rights was knowing, intelligent, and voluntary, but cautions that decision should not be interpreted as approving a methodology of reading some rights and not others, and then asking defendant to sign a written waiver form     33 Fla. L. Weekly D1537a

Criminal law -- Jurors -- Peremptory challenge -- Racial discrimination -- Trial court erred in finding that reasons given for peremptory strike of juror, that her brothers were alcoholics and that she had friends who were police officers, were not race neutral -- Because reasons for strike were race neutral, court erred in denying strike without addressing issue of whether the race-neutral explanation was a pretext     33 Fla. L. Weekly D1540a
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