Case Involving a ''Consensual Encounter'' With a Police Officer

In Raysor v. State, 795 So. 2d 1071 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001), a police officer had waved to the appellant, Raysor, in a friendly manner from across the street. Raysor approached without being asked to do so, and the officer noticed calluses on Raysor's fingers, leading him to suspect that Raysor used crack cocaine. The officer read Raysor his Miranda rights, which Raysor waived. The officer then asked whether Raysor was in possession of cocaine or drug paraphernalia. Raysor responded that he was and produced a crack pipe. Id. At the subsequent hearing on Raysor's motion to suppress the pipe, the officer testified that Raysor had been free to leave at all times during the encounter, but that he always read Miranda warnings "out of an abundance of caution." Id. The trial court held that the incident was a consensual encounter and admitted the evidence produced by the search. Id.