VALARIE ALMA CURRY, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 2004-05-26
No. 4D01-4834
GUNTHER, POLEN and MAY, JJ„ concur.
876 So. 2d 29 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2004) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

The appellate court reversed a conviction for cocaine trafficking, finding that egregious law enforcement conduct violated the defendant's due process rights and constituted objective entrapment.


Holding

The court held that the defendant's due process rights were violated by egregious law enforcement conduct, establishing objective entrapment as a matter of law.


Headnotes

[1] Objective entrapment is evaluated under the due process provision of the Florida Constitution when egregious law enforcement conduct is present.

[2] Law enforcement conduct that manufactures crime rather than detects it may violate due process.

Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

The defendant was found guilty of cocaine trafficking and sentenced to prison. She appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in denying her motion …

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

This appeal arises from a final order finding Valarie Ama Curry guilty of trafficking in cocaine. Curry was sentenced to ten years in prison. For the reasons expressed below, we reverse the conviction and order that Curry be discharged.

Curry’s first argument on appeal is that the trial court erroneously denied her motion to dismiss based on objective entrapment in light of the egregious conduct of the agents and officials. As a result of the allegedly egregious conduct, Curry contends her due process rights were violated and the case ought to have been dismissed. We agree.

There are two distinct theories of entrapment, a subjective theory and an objective theory. The subjective test is set forth in section 777.201, Florida Statutes, and is applicable in the absence of egregious law enforcement conduct. However, in the presence of egregious law enforcement conduct, an entrapment defense is to be objectively evaluated under the due process provision of article I, section 9, of the Florida Constitution. Munoz v. State, 629 So. 2d 90 (Fla.1993).

This court recently summarized cases that have found entrapment based on the egregious conduct of police officers.

There are several examples of law enforcement conduct that rises to the level of offending due process. In State v. Williams, 623 So. 2d 462 (Fla.1993), the Florida Supreme Court held that law enforcement manufacture of crack cocaine for use in a reverse sting operation near a school violated due process. Id. at 463. The court found this conduct to be outrageous, partially because crack cocaine is addictive and deadly. Id. at 466. Additionally, in State v. Glosson, 462 So. 2d 1082 (Fla.1985), the court found a contingent fee arrangement for the testimony of an informant a violation of due process, because it “seemed to manufacture, rather than detect, crime.” Id. at 1084 (citing Williamson v. United States, 311 F. 2d 441 (5th Cir.1962)).

Farley v. State, 848 So. 2d 393 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003).

In Farley, the most recent case out of this court on this issue, we reversed the appellant’s conviction and found that he had established entrapment as a matter of law. In Farley the defendant was targeted by officers in a reverse sting operation looking for individuals involved with child pornography. Farley’s name and personal information were discovered on a list that was generated in relation to the investigation of a child pornography ring out of Texas. The government agent sent Farley spam email attempting to have Farley seek pornographic material. Farley sent some responsive emails describing what he was looking for and eventually ordered some YHS tapes. Farley was arrested after purchasing the tapes from an undercover officer posing as a postal worker. This court found that Farley was objectively and subjectively entrapped. Id.

The Farley opinion specifically noted that “Farley was not involved in an existing criminal undertaking in need of detection by law enforcement; rather, LEACH sought to manufacture crime based on a list of names and addresses of unknown origin.” Id. A similar result was reached in State v. Finno, 643 So. 2d 1166, 1169 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994) (Objective entrapment established where government created a loan-sharking scheme where none previously existed.).

Where the government supplies all of the instrumentalities of a crime, controls all of its aspects, and teaches the intended target how to commit the crime for purposes of arresting him, as the trial court found here, there is no crime at all without government involvement. No legitimate objective of government is accomplished by prosecuting a crime so totally and completely orchestrated by the government. We conclude that this activity violates due process.

Id.

In the case at bar, the state argues that entrapment was not established because there was no evidence of inducement. The state further contends that the three step test utilized in a subjective entrapment analysis is applicable. However, as discussed above, the two theories of entrapment are distinct. The state’s analysis is misguided and has no bearing on the issue of objective entrapment.

The facts of this case are akin to those in Farley and Finno in that there is no indication Curry was involved with any criminal undertaking prior to the involvement of law enforcement. In fact, the facts of this case are even more egregious than those in Farley. In Farley the defendant’s name was generated from a list that was discovered as part of the investigation of a child pornography ring in Texas. In that case, there was some tangible information law enforcement could have relied upon in looking to Farley for potential criminal activity. In the case at bar, the officer received all the information regarding Curry from a Cl who was paid by the government and who was not available to testify as to where and why he felt Curry was involved with cocaine trafficking. Moreover, the unrefuted testimony of Curry was that she met and interacted with the Cl for some time before the detectives were involved. Detective Murray specifically instructed the Cl to not contact Curry without police involvement.

Moreover, the Cl is a paid informant. Contingency fees based on the testimony of a Cl have been held to violate due process rights and amount to entrapment. State v. Glosson, 462 So. 2d 1082 (Fla.1985). The concern in Glosson was that the practice of paying a Cl a contingency fee may manufacture, rather than detect, crime. Id. at 1084. Although distinguishable, that concern exists here.

In the case sub judice, the conduct of the Cl was egregious. The record demonstrates that the Cl approached Curry some time before the detective was involved with any investigation. The Cl encouraged a romantic relationship with Curry involving sexual activity. The Cl also gave Curry money to help pay her mortgage. When the Cl asked her to help him sell cocaine, she said no. It was only after an abundance of phone calls from the Cl, and later the detective, that she acquiesced. The Cl provided the cocaine and repeatedly met with Curry at her place of employment. In sum, there was no crime without the Cl’s prodding and improper conduct, which rose to the level of egregious. For this reason, Curry’s due process rights were violated. The trial court should have found entrapment as a matter of law and granted the motion to dismiss.

We therefore reverse the conviction and instruct the trial court to proceed in a manner consistent with this opinion.

GUNTHER, POLEN and MAY, JJ„ concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • State v. Murphy, 124 So. 3d 323 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013)
    …process, where the defendant was lured into criminal activity after the undercover government agent purposely established a sexual relationship with the defendant. See, e.g., Madera v. State, 943 So. 2d 960, 962 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006); Curry v. State, 876 So. 2d 29, 31 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004). But that sort of “preying” on human frailties and emotions is not present in the instant case. Here, law enforcement was specifically targeting child sex predators, and we see nothing egregious or outrageous in undercover on…
  • Madera v. State, 943 So. 2d 960 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006)
    …her, the question is whether the conduct of law enforcement was so egregious as to violate the due process rights of the defendant. See Munoz v. State, 629 So. 2d 90, 99 (Fla.1993); State v. Glosson, 462 So. 2d 1082, 1084 (Fla.1985); Curry v. State, 876 So. 2d 29, 30 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004). The facts alleged in the motion that were not specifically denied by the [*962] state include the following: The defendant was 37 years old with absolutely no criminal history, unknown to law enforcement officers, and gainf…
  • Blanco v. State, 218 So. 3d 939 (Fla. 3d DCA 2017)
    …of criminal activity. The Cl was used here, not to detect crime, but to manufacture it.” Id. at 962. Finding a due process violation, the court there reversed the conviction and found the defendant objectively entrapped. See also, Curry v. State, 876 So. 2d 29, 31 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004) (reversing a conviction where there was “no indication Curry was involved with any criminal undertaking prior to the involvement of law enforcement” and “it was only after an abundance of phone calls from the Cl, and later th…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw