M. M. v. State of Florida
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
Date FiledApril 6, 2022
Docket2D20-3626
StatusPublished
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Full Opinion
DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA
SECOND DISTRICT
M.M.,
Appellant,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
No. 2D20-3626
April 6, 2022
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County; Thomas N.
Palermo, Judge.
Howard L. Dimmig, II, Public Defender, and Richard P. Albertine,
Jr., Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Jeffrey H. Siegal,
Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
PER CURIAM.
M.M. appeals an order that adjudicated him delinquent for
carrying a concealed firearm. He argues that the court should have
granted his motion to suppress and that the court erred by holding
the adjudicatory hearing over Zoom, a video teleconferencing
software program. We find no merit in M.M.'s argument concerning
the motion to suppress. However, with respect to the Zoom hearing
issue, the underlying facts and legal ruling on review in this case
are indistinguishable from those featured in T.H. v. State, 47 Fla. L.
Weekly D681a (Fla. 2d DCA Mar. 18, 2022).
In T.H., we concluded that a trial court must conduct a
hearing on a juvenile's objection to holding a hearing over Zoom
and make a case-specific finding of necessity to limit confrontation
rights. Id. at D683. The T.H. panel expressly did not determine
whether conducting an adjudicatory hearing via Zoom is
unconstitutional, and we do not reach that issue here. On remand,
if the trial court holds a hearing on M.M.'s objection and makes a
case-specific finding of necessity, the adjudicatory hearing may be
held via Zoom. See id.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for further
proceedings consistent with this opinion.
CASANUEVA and KHOUZAM, JJ., Concur.
LABRIT, J., Concurs specially.
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LABRIT, J., Specially concurring.
I concur to reverse and remand this case because we are
bound by the decision in T.H. v. State, 47 Fla. L. Weekly D681a (Fla.
2d DCA Mar. 18, 2022). See In re Rule 9.331, Determination of
Causes by a Dist. Ct. of Appeal En Banc, Fla. R. App. P., 416 So. 2d
1127, 1128 (Fla. 1982). If we were writing on a clean slate, I would
vote to affirm for the reasons stated in the order on review as well
as for the reasons in my colleague's dissenting opinion in T.H.
Opinion subject to revision prior to official publication.
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