Gerald Amison of Dade City appeared in a Pasco County courtroom this week to finally resolve a three-year-old marijuana possession charge. His simple misdemeanor drug case ended up in front of the Florida Court of Appeals this spring. And now it will be wiped from his record.

Back in April, 2006, Amison was driving through the Richloam tract of the Withlacoochee State Forest when he was pulled over by a state wildlife officer looking for poachers. As the officer walked toward’s Amison’s truck, he smelled marijuana smoke. The officer ultimately searched the truck and discovered a baggie of marijuana in a toolbox. Amison was arrested.

Amison’s defense attorneys in Pasco County asked the trial court to throw out the evidence, arguing that the vehicle search was illegal. They tried to persuade the judge that the wildlife officer had no reasonable suspicion that Amison had violated any wildlife conservation laws when they made their stop of his vehicle. The defense lawyers argued that the wildlife officers are required by law to have a reasonable suspicion that a person exceeded a fish limit, shot an endangered animal or hunted without a license in order to make a stop.

Generally, law enforcement cannot just stop a vehicle for no reason. There must a reasonable suspicion that a violation of law has occurred. In this case, the limitation was arguably even more restrictive because the wildlife officers weren’t authorized to make run-of-the-mill traffic stops as they were charged solely with enforcement of conservation laws.

At the time, the trial judge noted that the stop seemed improper but that he did not have any legal precedent to follow which directed him to exclude the evidence from the search. The defense motion was denied and Amison later pleaded no contest to marijuana possession.

They then filed an appeal over the search issue. Just two months ago, the appeals court overturned the lower court’s holding. In its opinion, the appellate court said the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s rule allowing its officers to do “regulatory inspections” even when they have no suspicion of poaching conflicted with Florida state law. When administrative rules conflict with statutes passed by the legislature or the state constitution, they cannot be enforced.

The charges have been dismissed. Amison no longer has that marijuana conviction on his record and he was refunded court costs he paid. He can file a motion with the court requesting that the entire file be sealed.

Drug Charges

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 8:54 am and is filed under Florida Criminal Law News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.