{"id":347,"date":"2018-08-10T14:28:21","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T18:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=347"},"modified":"2026-01-08T03:37:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:37:52","slug":"florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Appeals Court Throws Out Search of Defendant\u2019s Vehicle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Constitution protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures by law enforcement. If evidence was gained by the police through illegal means, that evidence can be suppressed. Suppression means that the evidence cannot be presented in court. If evidence that should have been suppressed is presented, and there is a conviction, that conviction can be overturned. There are many possible ways that a knowledgeable Tampa criminal defense attorney can try to get evidence against you suppressed.<strong>Warrants and Searches<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When a search warrant is issued, it will have a description of the specific places that are allowed to be searched. In this case, the warrant permitted the police to search three motel rooms, any people who were believed to be involved in the crime, the curtilage, and any vehicles located in the curtilage. The SWAT team came in to perform the search. During the search, they saw the defendant leave one of the hotel rooms and walk to his car, which was parked a few feet away in the parking lot of the motel. He got into his car, and as he tried to leave, he was stopped by law enforcement, blocking him in. Then he got out of his car and lay on the ground. The officer searched his car and found drugs.<\/p>\n<p>The question raised on this appeal was whether the search was legal. In other words, was the defendant\u2019s car located in a place that was covered by the warrant? The answer rested on the definition of curtilage. If the defendant\u2019s car was parked in the \u201ccurtilage,\u201d the search was legal. If it was not part of the curtilage, the search was illegal and should be suppressed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Florida Appeals Court Throws Out Search of Defendant\u2019s Vehicle\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Constitution protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures by law enforcement. If evidence was gained by the police through illegal means, that evidence can be suppressed. Suppression means that the evidence cannot be presented in court. If evidence that should have been suppressed is presented, and there is a conviction, that conviction can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defenses","category-drug-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Vehicle Search Thrown Out on Appeal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stopped and searched in Florida? See how an appeals court threw out a vehicle search and why bad stops can save your case.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Vehicle Search Thrown Out on Appeal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Stopped and searched in Florida? See how an appeals court threw out a vehicle search and why bad stops can save your case.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/police-k9-searching-vehicle-florida-traffic-stop.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vehicle Search Thrown Out on Appeal","description":"Stopped and searched in Florida? See how an appeals court threw out a vehicle search and why bad stops can save your case.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Vehicle Search Thrown Out on Appeal","twitter_description":"Stopped and searched in Florida? See how an appeals court threw out a vehicle search and why bad stops can save your case.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/police-k9-searching-vehicle-florida-traffic-stop.webp","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"Florida Appeals Court Throws Out Search of Defendant\u2019s Vehicle","datePublished":"2018-08-10T18:28:21+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-08T08:37:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/"},"wordCount":607,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/police-k9-searching-vehicle-florida-traffic-stop.webp","articleSection":["Defenses","Drug Crimes"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/","name":"Vehicle Search Thrown Out on Appeal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/police-k9-searching-vehicle-florida-traffic-stop.webp","datePublished":"2018-08-10T18:28:21+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-08T08:37:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"description":"Stopped and searched in Florida? See how an appeals court threw out a vehicle search and why bad stops can save your case.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/police-k9-searching-vehicle-florida-traffic-stop.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/police-k9-searching-vehicle-florida-traffic-stop.webp","width":1000,"height":747,"caption":"Florida police officers and K9 searching a car during a traffic stop after drugs are found in the trunk"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-throws-out-search-of-defendants-vehicle\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Florida Appeals Court Throws Out Search of Defendant\u2019s Vehicle"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/","name":"Tampa Criminal Lawyer Blog","description":"Published by Tampa Criminal Attorney \u2014 Hanlon Law","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837","name":"Hanlon Law, PA","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c09dcc7ad49cb4e69012e689c8f8279e82819db3eccff0cdeeccdacb7210dc98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c09dcc7ad49cb4e69012e689c8f8279e82819db3eccff0cdeeccdacb7210dc98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c09dcc7ad49cb4e69012e689c8f8279e82819db3eccff0cdeeccdacb7210dc98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hanlon Law, PA"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/police-k9-searching-vehicle-florida-traffic-stop.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1410,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions\/1410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}