Case Study: Mannie Vazquez

Mannie Vazquez is a resident of Greensberg, Texas, and decided to travel to Miami, Florida, to visit his family. Mannie meets Vince in a hotel in Louisiana and he offers to take Vince to Miami. Vince has a number of heavy bags with him, which Mannie helps him load into the car. They both stop in Tallahassee and split a room. Mannie takes an over the counter sleep aid to help him sleep.
Officer Meyer is working his regular patrol, the night shift at 1 a.m., he notices the Greensberg license plate and become suspicious because of the drugs that come from across the border into Greensberg. He and another officer, officer Cross, question the clerk and discover the car is a rental, so they call a K-9 unit to the scene who arrives at 3 a.m. The two officers arrive to Vince and Mannie’s hotel and Vince agrees to let them search the vehicle. The K-9 is led throughout the hotel room as well as the car and does not make any noise. Mannie has trouble understanding questions and allows them to search the room at 3 a.m with the K-9 unit and three officers. The dog is led
State, 753 So. 2d 713 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000), the court held that Mr. Smith had no legal duty to comply with what the officer instructed him to do, and furthermore, Mr. Smith had the right to deny his consent, which he did so when he backed up. The officer violated Mr. Smith’s rights, as he had not observed any reasonable suspect that Mr. Smith participated in any illegal activity, and went ahead with the search on his own assumptions. It is important to note that the court as well, stated that the government is who needs to prove that the consent was voluntary and an act of free will, See Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491(1983). The officers in Tallahassee who searched Mannie and Vince’s car and room had no probable cause that there was illegal activity occur, the officers acted on their own assumptions that the license plate on Vazquez’s rental car was from a place of high drug