Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

I was in a neighborhood culdesac waiting in my car, for my sister to come out of her friends house. Well she was taking a bit longer than expected and one of the neighbors call the cops on me and said that there was a suspicious person parked outside. Next thing I know, 3 Polk County Florida Sheriffs Deputies pulled up with spotlights straight in my face. One thing led to another, they searched me and i gave consent to search the car and my question is.... One of my cell phones was in the car at the time and the other cell phone i had in my hand when they asked me to step out of the car. So I placed my wallet and 2nd cell phone on the trunk of my car and then was asked to step over to the front of the police car while the vehicle search was taking place. The officer searching the car ended up scrolling through both of my cell phones and then ended up calling my sister from his personal cell phone with his number blocked. She didnt answer so he proceeded to pick my phone up that was on the trunk of the car and scroll til he got to my sisters name and he called her phone from my phone without asking me to use either one of them. Is that illegal in Florida?


Asked on 1/17/11, 11:39 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Craig Epifanio Craig Epifanio, P.A.

The best answer I can give is a big fat maybe. A California court has said it is Ok for the police to go through your cell phone as it is not deemed to be private. I personally strongly disagree with that. However, Florida has not decided that question yet. So if you are prosecuted as a result of something that happened from this incident, it will be up to the court to decide if it's illegal.

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Answered on 1/22/11, 1:44 pm


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