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Sylvester v. State10/27/2000
of birth, address, and physical description are on the Uniform Traffic Citation and the copy of the driving record. However, it does not necessarily follow that Sylvester actually committed the offenses listed on the driving record. It is not unusual for relatives, roommates, or friends to use the identity of someone (the unknowing defendant) because their own driving record is less than stellar. A relative or friend knows the unknowing defendant's birthday, address and other pertinent information and, if stopped, could give that information to the law enforcement officer. The wrongdoer could even be driving the vehicle registered to the unknowing defendant. The officer could issue a ticket for driving without a license and the license would be suspended when the wrongdoer did not appear in court. Or, the wrongdoer could use the stolen identity, enter a plea, and never satisfy the obligations (fine and costs) imposed. The suspension of the license for failing to satisfy the obligation would be reflected on the unknowing defendant's driving record. Eventually, the unknowing defendant's driving record would become an issue in his own trial. But the defendant should not have to prove that he did not cause all of the offenses listed on his record. The state has the obligation of proving each element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt, and that includes proving that each conviction was the result of the defendant's wrongdoing.
Also, although computers help us store and retrieve information, and are viewed by some as infallible, occasionally people who input the data make mistakes. It is not enough that the state introduce the driving record if it plans to enhance a defendant's punishment; the state must prove that the defendant has been convicted of each crime that is used to enhance the defendant's punishment. The state must prove the prior convictions and link the defendant to the convictions.
REVERSED and REMANDED with instructions to re-sentence Sylvester on the misdemeanor charge of DWLS.
GRIFFIN, J., concurs.
ORFINGER, M., Senior Judge, dissents, with opinion.
ORFINGER, M., Senior Judge, dissents.
I respectfully dissent. In the record before the court was the Florida Uniform Traffic Citation issued on the charge of "Driving While License Suspended or Revoked" in the instant case. The person charged was Roosevelt Sylvester, of Route 1, Box 189, Hawthorne, Florida, a black male, date of birth 10-18-60 with Florida driver's license number S41272060378, which had expired 10-18-84. The transcript of the driver record before the court to prove the prior offenses was the record of Roosevelt Sylvester, Route 1, Box 189, Hawthorne, Florida, black male, date of birth 10-18-60, driver's license No. S412-720-60-378-0, date expired 10-18-84. This transcript clearly pointed to this defendant as the person whose record it purported to represent.
The court in State v. Pellicane, 729 So. 2d 534 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999) did not hold the computerized driving record to be inadmissible, but only that it was unreliable. As to the docket sheet which was presented to prove one conviction, the court said that it only tended " . . . to link the defendant to the conviction by the fact that the docket sheet matches the defendant's name." Id. at 535. The reliability of admissible evidence is for the finder of fact. As demonstrated above, there is more here than merely matching the name on the record to the defendant. If the computerized record presented here is admissible, as I believe it to be, then this unrefuted record combined with the information contained in the citation is sufficient to carry the state's burden required of it by State v. Rodriguez,
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