Stafford v. Green
The Third DCA granted habeas relief to a pretrial detainee arrested for violating a Miami Beach anti-camping/sleeping ordinance, holding that the arrest affidavit failed to establish probable cause because it did not show the officer offered shelter to the self-identified homeless petitioner before arresting him, as the ordinance requires. The court rejected the State's argument that the offer-and-refusal-of-shelter requirement was merely an affirmative defense, holding instead that it is a condition precedent to arrest that the State must affirmatively demonstrate within the four corners of the arrest affidavit.
Key facts
- Stafford, a self-identified homeless person, was arrested in Miami Beach for violating a municipal anti-camping/sleeping ordinance that requires officers to offer shelter to homeless individuals before making an arrest.
- The arrest affidavit designated Stafford as homeless based on verbal information but contained no indication that the officer offered shelter or that Stafford refused it before the arrest.
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Why it matters
This is a novel first-impression ruling on how Florida courts should analyze mandatory shelter-offer provisions in local anti-camping/homeless ordinances, holding such provisions are conditions precedent to arrest… — full analysis with a trial
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