State v. Hanna11/14/2003
The issue in this case is whether Appellee's right to a speedy trial on several counts in a multi-count information was violated, thereby entitling Appellee to a discharge on these counts. The trial court concluded that a speedy trial violation had occurred and discharged Appellee on six of the twelve counts contained within the information. Our determination of this issue depends on whether the six dismissed counts arose from the same "criminal episode" as a charge for which Appellee had been previously arrested and discharged. We conclude that the charges involved separate episodes; therefore, we hold that the lower court erred in granting the motion for discharge.
Appellee is accused of operating an adult bookstore, "Jerry's General Store," without a proper license, a county ordinance violation, several counts of distribution of obscene materials, all misdemeanors, and two felony RICO counts wherein the distribution charges comprise the predicate acts. The allegations are that undercover officers purchased obscene videos, DVDs and a magazine from Appellee on four different dates. On only one of the dates, August 16, 2002, did officers effect an arrest contemporaneous with the purchase. However, at that time, Appellee was only charged with the violation of Orange County code 3-127, operating an adult entertainment establishment without a license; no additional charges were levied by the officers.
Based on the August 16th arrest, on September 23, 2002, the State filed an information charging Appellee with operating an adult establishment without a license on the date of August 16, 2002, but this charge was later nolle prosequied. Thereafter, on November 15, 2002, the ninety-first day after Appellee's first arrest, Appellee was arrested on the charges now at issue. The State filed an information containing the felony and misdemeanor charges the next day. The lower court discharged Appellee on counts lll through Vll, which charged Appellee with distributing several articles of obscene materials on July, 19, 2002 and August 7, 2002. The court also discharged Appellee as to count Xl, which, as amended, alleged that Appellee operated an unlicensed adult bookstore between July 19, 2002, and August 15, 2002. The remaining counts are not at issue for purposes of this appeal.
The central issue in this appeal is whether the dismissed charges arose from the same criminal episode as the crime for which Appellee was arrested on August 16, 2002. If so, then the speedy trial period commenced to run on all of the charges on August 16th, even though she was not charged with the majority of the crimes until November 15th. State v. Van Winkle, 407 So. 2d 1059 (Fla. 5th DCA 1981). Moreover, if the dismissed misdemeanor crimes arose from the August 16th episode, the subsequent consolidation of these charges with the felonies would not revive the misdemeanor counts because the speedy trial time had already expired. State v. Robbins, 830 So. 2d 866 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002); Alvarez v. State, 791 So. 2d 574 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001). Because we conclude that the various charges did not arise from the same criminal episode, however, Appellee's speedy trial time did not commence to run on each charge until Appellee was arrested on the particular charge. Furthermore, because the misdemeanor charges were consolidated with the felony counts before the speedy trial time expired on the misdemeanors, the time period for felonies applies. Id.; Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.191(f).
Although the cases in this arena are sometimes difficult to reconcile, our analysis of numerous decisions leads us to the following observations. First, generally, when crimes occur on different days, not as a part of one uninterrupted event,
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