FL1: Illegal patdown led to flight and lawful abandonment

Defendant was lawfully stopped, but his patdown was unreasonable. Then he fled on foot. That was abandonment, despite the illegal search. Atwood v. State, 2022 Fla. App. LEXIS 6855 (Fla. 1st DCA Oct. 12, 2022):

While Atwood may not have run but for the illegal search, “but-for causality is only a necessary, not a sufficient, condition for suppression.” Hudson, 547 U.S. at 592. And Atwood abandoned the bags of drugs on his own accord. State v. Anderson, 591 So. 2d 611, 613 (Fla. 1992) (“[I]f [a] stop is valid, there is no basis to suppress evidence abandoned during stop.”). But even had he not discarded them, the bags would have inevitably been found on him during the full lawful search of his person subsequent to his arrest. For all these reasons, there would have been insufficient basis to suppress the heroin and cannabis that Atwood abandoned during this lawful detention and attempted flight.

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