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Dobrin v. Florida Dep't of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles2/19/2004
Rehearing petition filed: March 4, 2004; Rehearing denied: 05/27/2004 (IN LIGHT OF REVISED OPINION}
We have for review Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles v. Dobrin, 829 So. 2d 922 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002), which expressly and directly conflicts with our decision in Holland v. State, 696 So. 2d 757 (Fla. 1997). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const.
FACTS
The evidence presented in this case consists only of the necessary paperwork reported by the officer as a result of the traffic stop. These documents reveal the following facts. An officer observed petitioner Martin Matthew Dobrin (Dobrin) driving his truck at a high rate of speed (estimated by the officer at fifty miles per hour) and drifting to the right and correcting himself in a quick manner on several occasions. The officer pulled Dobrin over and ticketed him for failure to maintain a single lane. During this procedure, the officer noticed that Dobrin's eyes were bloodshot and that his breath smelled of alcohol. The officer conducted a field sobriety test, which Dobrin failed. The officer then arrested Dobrin for driving under the influence (DUI) and read Dobrin the implied consent warning. Dobrin refused to take a breath test, and as a result, respondent Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (Department) suspended Dobrin's license.
At the formal administrative review of Dobrin's license suspension, Dobrin challenged the validity of the traffic stop, arguing that the officer failed to specify in his arrest report that Dobrin had actually gone beyond a single lane. Dobrin claimed that the failure to include this information in the arrest report indicated that the officer did not have probable cause for the traffic stop. The hearing officer rejected without elaboration Dobrin's argument in respect to the probable cause for the traffic stop, concluding that the officer did have probable cause to believe that Dobrin was driving under the influence , that Dobrin was lawfully arrested, and that Dobrin refused the breath test after being informed that refusal to submit to the breath test would result in license suspension. Thus, the hearing officer suspended Dobrin's license.
Dobrin thereafter filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the circuit court. The circuit court granted Dobrin's petition and quashed the hearing officer's order of license suspension, finding that the facts observed by the officer and contained in the officer's arrest report did not provide probable cause to stop Dobrin's vehicle for failure to maintain a single lane. The circuit court further rejected the Department's argument that the officer would have been justified in stopping Dobrin for speeding, reasoning that it could not uphold the stop on the basis of what the officer could have done because the arrest report stated that the only reason for stopping Dobrin was the failure to maintain a single lane. The arrest report did not provide that the officer initiated the traffic stop because Dobrin was speeding, nor did it provide what the speed limit was for that section of road on which Dobrin was traveling. Finally, the court rejected the Department's argument that the officer was justified in stopping Dobrin to determine whether he was ill, tired, or driving under the influence because the arrest report did not indicate that impairment was the reason for the stop. Dobrin v. Dep't of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles, No. 2001-32341-CICI (Fla. 7th Cir. Ct. order filed Mar. 8, 2002).
The Department thereafter filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the Fifth District Court of Appeal. The Fifth District granted the petition and quashed the circuit court's decision, provid
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