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State11/9/2005
Before SHEPHERD and SUAREZ, JJ., and SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.
The petitioner, State of Florida, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, seeks certiorari review of a circuit court appellate division decision reinstating respondent, Richard Pipkin's driver's license, which had been suspended for his refusal to submit to a breath-alcohol test. Our decision turns on whether or not Pipkin was lawfully stopped by an off-duty Coral Gables police officer who observed him violating routine traffic regulations outside the officer's jurisdiction. Concluding that Pipkin was not lawfully stopped, we are compelled to approve the decision of the circuit court appellate division.
In November 2002, Coral Gables Police Officer Thomson observed Pipkin driving erratically in an easterly direction on Bird Road, just west of the Coral Gables city limit. Although Officer Thomson was in uniform and driving a marked police cruiser, he was off duty when he made this observation. He nevertheless activated his overhead lights and siren, signaling Pipkin to pull over. In so doing, Pipkin traveled across the City of Coral Gables boundary at the Red Road intersection, and came to a stop on the shoulder of the east-bound lane of Bird Road, fifty to seventy feet within the Coral Gables city limit.
Because he was off duty, Officer Thomson called on-duty Coral Gables Officer Smith to the scene, related the events that had transpired, and requested Officer Smith to conduct a field sobriety test. Based on this discussion and his own observations of Pipkin, Smith administered several field sobriety exercises, all of which Pipkin failed. Smith then arrested Pipkin for careless driving and driving under the influence , and transported him to the Coral Gables police station. At the station, Pipkin was informed of Florida's implied consent law, § 316.1932, Fla. Stat. (2004), but refused to take a breath-alcohol test. His license was suspended for one year pursuant to section 322.2615(b)1.a of the Florida Statutes. Pipkin sought formal administrative review of the suspension.
Officer Smith was the only officer to testify at the administrative review hearing. During his examination, Smith recounted Thomson's statement to him at the scene that Thomson pulled Pipkin over because he crossed a yellow line and failed to maintain a single lane outside the Coral Gables City limits. Based upon Thomson's account, "any alleged cause of the stop would all have occurred in the City of West Miami," according to Smith. Officer Smith also testified regarding his observations of Pipkin at the scene, his removal of Pipkin from his vehicle, and the failed roadside sobriety exam. The hearing officer sustained Pipkin's suspension of driving privileges. Pipkin appealed to the circuit court appellate division.
The appellate division reversed in favor of Pipkin. Relying on Schachter v. State, 338 So. 2d 269 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976), it concluded that the conduct (which it termed a "routine traffic offense") giving rise to the stop and subsequent arrest occurred outside Officer Thomson's official jurisdiction and therefore was illegal.
"In reviewing a final order of the circuit court acting in its review capacity, the district court is limited to determining whether the circuit court afforded procedural due process and applied the correct law." Conahan v. Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles, 619 So. 2d 988 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993). There is no allegation that Pipkin was denied procedural due process. We further conclude that the appellate division correctly applied Schachter and did not depart from the essential requirements of that law. See Broward County v. G.B.V. Intern, Ltd., 787 So. 2d 838
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