CopyCited 1 times | Published | Florida 5th District Court of Appeal | 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 8923, 2015 WL 3631621
...Silli-man was then transported to a drug treatment facility, not a hospital or a jail. Ultimately, Silliman was charged with possession of heroin. The charge was dismissed based on the trial court’s determination that Silliman was entitled to immunity under section 893.21(2), Florida Statutes (2013), which provides: (2) A person who experiences a drug-related overdose and is in need of medical assistance may not be charged, prosecuted, or penalized pursuant to this chapter for possession of a controlled...
...ppears to meet this criteria is brought to the attention of law enforcement or is in a public place. §
397.677, Fla. Stat. (2013). Thus, section
397.675 applies to persons who are substance abuse impaired and require substance abuse services, while section
893.21(2) concerns individuals who are experiencing a drug-related overdose and are in need of medical assistance....
...Quite simply, he was “high.” Deputy Kushel took Silliman to a facility to receive treatment for his drug impairment, not to receive medical assistance, and neither Deputy Kushel nor the facility provided medical assistance to Silli-man. Since Silliman did not exhibit signs of a drug overdose requiring medical assistance, section 893.21(2) does not apply. Thus, we conclude the trial court erred in granting Silliman immunity based on section 893.21(2) and reverse....
CopyPublished | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal
...liability and, as relevant here, immunity from prosecution.
The State appeals the trial court's order finding that "but for"
causation immunized Anthony Levern Waiters from prosecution for
drug-related offenses under the 911 Good Samaritan Act,
§ 893.21(2), Fla....
...Waiters with possession of a
1 §§
397.301-.998, Fla. Stat. (2020).
3
controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
§§
893.13(6)(a), .147(1), Fla. Stat. (2020).
Mr. Waiters moved to dismiss the charges pursuant to section
893.21....
...2d DCA 2020)).
With these ground rules in place, we begin by identifying the
issues before us. After that, we will proceed with our analysis of the
statutory language. Then, we will review Mr. Waiters' entitlement to
statutory immunity.
III. Section 893.21(2) and the issues before us
Under section 893.21(2),
[a] person who experiences, or has a good faith belief that
he or she is experiencing, an alcohol-related or a drug-
related overdose and is in need of medical assistance may
not be arrested, charged, p...
...prosecuted, or penalized pursuant to this chapter for
possession of a controlled substance if the evidence for
possession of a controlled substance was obtained as a
result of the overdose and the need for medical
assistance.
§ 893.21(2), Fla....
...Apparently, the legislature did not intend to immunize
individuals seeking medical assistance for a drug overdose from
arrest pursuant to an outstanding arrest warrant. It would
certainly be incongruous, then, for an individual to evade criminal
liability under section 893.21(2) for any contraband discovered
11
pursuant to an arrest on an outstanding warrant.5 Cf....
...incident to arrest on an outstanding warrant because the series of
events leading to that discovery began with Mr. Waiters' need for
medical assistance for a suspected drug overdose. This is, indeed,
a strained reading of the statute; it ignores the legislative intent
reflected in section
893.21(2)'s staff analysis.
5 As noted above, the operative version of the statute in this
case is from 2020. The statute was amended in 2019. See ch. 19-
81 § 2, Laws of Fla. However, there is nothing in the language of
section
893.21(2) or in the legislative history of the 2019
amendment to indicate that the legislature intended otherwise.
12
Moreover, when we read section
893.21 in pari materia with
other sections of the "Florida Comprehensive Drug Abuse
Prevention and Control Act," §§
893.01-.30 and related statutory
provisions, we conclude that the legislature intended to employ
proximate causation as the test for legal liability....
...2002))).
For instance, section
782.04(1)(a)3, Florida Statutes (2020),
classifies as a capital felony the distribution of multiple controlled
substances enumerated under section
893.03 "when such
substance or mixture is proven to be the proximate cause of the
death of the user." Faced with section
893.21(2)'s ambiguity, and to
maintain consistency with these related statutory provisions, we
read section
893.21 to also require proximate causation.
13
Construing these related statutory provisions differently hazards
anomalous and inconsistent results.
B....
...Only after they had arrested him did they
find the contraband. In our view, the outstanding warrant was an
intervening, superseding cause severing any causal connection to
Mr. Waiters' seeking medical assistance. See Frierson,
926 So. 2d
at 1143-44.
Section
893.21 requires that the request for medical
assistance be the cause of the discovery of the evidence ("as a
result")....
...This
interpretation is consistent with the general notion of proximate
causation, since other factors would constitute superceding [sic] or
overwhelming causes when the dog is merely passive or
retreating.").
If we adopted a "but for" test for section 893.21, an individual
would be immune from prosecution for any evidence discovered 'but
for,' or as an indirect result of, a person's request for medical
assistance....
...Id. at 1283. Similarly, here, there was an outstanding warrant for
Mr. Waiters' arrest. And it was this existing circumstance that led
to the discovery of the contraband, not the effort to seek medical
assistance.
Moreover, we surmise that section 893.21 does not bar
prosecution for contraband that is discovered due to independent,
superseding causes....
...Waiters would be immune from prosecution for any contraband
uncovered as part of his seeking medical assistance, once the
medical assistance ceased and law enforcement officers discovered
(and were required to execute) the active arrest warrant, section
893.21 did not immunize Mr....
...Any concerns as to Mr. Waiters' medical well-being were
resolved after he had been evaluated and released. Then, law
enforcement officers arrested him on the outstanding warrant. Cf.
State v. Silliman,
168 So. 3d 245, 247 (Fla. 5th DCA 2015) (holding
that section
893.21 was inapplicable because the defendant "was
not experiencing a drug overdose and did not need medical
assistance....
...medical assistance, which simply means the request for assistance
must be the direct and proximate cause of the discovery of the
contraband.
V. Conclusion
The trial court erred in utilizing "but for" causation to
immunize Mr. Waiters from prosecution under section 893.21.
Because law enforcement officers' discovery of the contraband was
a proximate result of the search incident to Mr....
CopyPublished | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal
...that anyone “acting in good faith who seeks medical assistance for
an individual experiencing a drug-related overdose” is immune
from prosecution for drug possession if the evidence “was obtained
as a result of the person’s seeking medical assistance.” § 893.21(1),
Fla....
...The court
imposed a fifteen-month sentence, and Pope now appeals the order
denying immunity.
It is undisputed that Pope contacted 911 for no reason other
than to “seek[]medical assistance for an individual experiencing a
drug-related overdose.” See § 893.21(1)....
...ve behaved better, his
purpose in contacting 911 was to save his friend. That was a good-
faith purpose. Under a plain reading of the 911 Good Samaritan
Act, we conclude Pope was “[a] person acting in good faith who
[sought] medical assistance.” § 893.21(1)....
