Doney v. State

In Doney v. State, 648 So. 2d 799 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994), a uniformed police officer, while on routine patrol and driving a marked vehicle, witnessed a black male give something small to Doney with his thumb and forefinger, and Doney hand the black male paper currency. The officer claimed that this transaction consisted of behavior which he would interpret as a drug transaction. After witnessing this exchange and failing in his attempt to make contact with the black male, the officer pulled his car up behind Doney and got out. Doney stopped and said, "I knew I shouldn't have been messing with that black guy." The officer claimed that this statement reinforced his belief that a drug transaction had taken place, so he stepped closer and asked Doney his name. When Doney responded, the police officer observed what he believed to be cocaine rocks in Doney's mouth. At the suppression hearing, the officer testified that he observed something in Doney's mouth when Doney made his initial statement, but he was unsure of what it was until he asked Doney his name, and Doney responded. The officer then asked Doney to spit the objects out, which he did. The objects field tested positive for cocaine. At the hearing on the motion to suppress, the officer testified that he had been involved in over 1,000 drug arrests and had observed hand to hand drug exchanges at least 1,000 times. Our court, after reviewing previous case law, determined that the officer witnessing a hand to hand transaction between Doney and the black male, along with his suspicion that Doney was hiding cocaine rocks in his mouth, was insufficient to support a finding of probable cause. The opinion goes on to state: Doney could have had any of a number of things in his mouth, and the exchange of money in the street does not necessarily evidence an illegal purchase. Probable cause to arrest and search only exists when the totality of the circumstances more likely than not points to the commission of a crime. Doney, 648 So. 2d at 802 (citing Elliott v. State, 597 So. 2d 916 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992)).