Couch v. State

Couch v. State, 341 So. 2d 285 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1977)

Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida · State Appellate Courts
Decided: January 19, 1977
Docket: No. 76-48
Judges: Ott
Citations: 341 So. 2d 285

Cited by 9

Opinion

341 So.2d 285 (1977)

Clifford COUCH, Appellant,

STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 76-48.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

January 19, 1977.

Jack O. Johnson, Public Defender, and Robert H. Grizzard, II, Asst. Public Defender, Bartow, for appellant.

*286 Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and William I. Munsey, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.

OTT, Judge.

Clifford Couch appeals from the revocation of his probation. Appellant was placed on probation after pleading guilty to possession of marijuana. He was subsequently charged with violating various conditions of the probation. A hearing was held on the violations.

The trial court found that appellant had violated the conditions of probation. The court revoked probation and sentenced appellant to two years.

Appellant contends that the trial court erred in revoking probation where the only evidence of violations was hearsay. After examining the record on appeal, we agree that the revocation was based solely upon hearsay evidence and must be reversed.

A probation revocation proceeding is a relatively informal proceeding and hearsay evidence may be received and considered provided some competent and legally admissible evidence is presented upon which the trial judge can base his decision. A revocation cannot be based solely on hearsay. Tuff v. State, 338 So.2d 1335 (Fla.2d DCA 1976); Brown v. State, 338 So.2d 573 (Fla.2d DCA 1976). Cf. Bernhardt v. State, 288 So.2d 490 (Fla. 1974).

This reversal does not bar a second revocation hearing based upon another affidavit charging the same violations and competent evidence. See Tuff v. State, supra .

REVERSED.

HOBSON, Acting C.J., and GRIMES, J., concur.

How later courts describe this case

No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.

Cited by 9 cases

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State Appellate Courts9

Relies on it most ⓘ

Wheeler v. State344 So. 2d 630 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1977)
Brown v. State659 So. 2d 1260 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1995)
Jones v. State348 So. 2d 942 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1977)
Miller v. State444 So. 2d 523 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1984)
Evans v. State356 So. 2d 1355 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1978)
Smith v. State373 So. 2d 76 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1979)

Most recent

Milbry v. State722 So. 2d 834 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1998)
Brown v. State659 So. 2d 1260 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1995)
Miller v. State444 So. 2d 523 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1984)
Martinez v. State394 So. 2d 1103 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1981)
Smith v. State373 So. 2d 76 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1979)
Gibson v. State366 So. 2d 166 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1979)

Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.

Authorities cited 3

Depth	Case	Cited by
	Bernhardt v. State, 288 So. 2d 490 (Fla. 1974)	174
	Tuff v. State, 338 So. 2d 1335 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1976)	27
	Brown v. State, 338 So. 2d 573 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1976)	18

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