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344 So. 2d 913

Docket No. 76-547.

Barber v. State

Albert BARBER, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Decided April 5, 1977.

Rehearing Denied May 4, 1977.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1977-04-05

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“You will promptly and truthfully answer all inquiries directed to you by the Court or the Probation Officer, and allow the Officer to visit in your home, at your employment site or elsewhere, and you will comply with all instructions he may give you.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 368 So. 2d 363 - Watkins v. State

“probation may be revoked only for [a] violation of a condition set by the court.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 441 So. 2d 1129 - Rodriguez v. State

Relies on 330 So. 2d 800 - Kominsky v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1977-04-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently October 1991

13 state decisions

60197719801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender and Beth C. Weitzner, Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.

¶2Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Sidney M. Pertnoy, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

¶3Before PEARSON and BARKDULL, JJ., and CHARLES CARROLL (Ret.), Associate Judge.

¶4PEARSON, Judge.

¶5On April 15, 1974, this appellant pled guilty to the possession of a controlled substance and was placed on probation for a period of five years. One of the conditions of his probation was as follows:

"(b) You shall promptly and truthfully answer all inquiries directed to you by the Court and the Probation Supervisor; allow the Probation Supervisor to visit your home, employment site, or elsewhere, and carry out all instructions he gives you."

¶6The conditions of probation did not include a requirement that the defendant file written monthly reports. During the period of probation, the defendant's Probation Supervisor filed an application of violation of probation setting forth as one of the grounds that the defendant had failed to file written reports as he was instructed to *914 do by the probation officer. The trial court revoked defendant's probation upon the sole ground that he had failed to file the monthly reports.

¶7The State points out that it is often necessary for the Probation Supervisor to have written reports from a probationer in order to carry out his duties as supervisor. We think that this right to require reports affirmatively appears from the provisions of Section 948.02, Florida Statutes (1975). Nevertheless, it also appears that it is exclusively within the jurisdiction of the court to set the terms and conditions upon which a probationer's probation may be revoked. See Section 948.03, Florida Statutes (1975); and Kominsky v. State,330 So.2d 800 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976).

¶8We, therefore, hold that although the Department of Offender Rehabilitation, acting through a probation officer, may require a probationer to file periodic reports, even though such a requirement is not made a condition of his probation, such probation may not be revoked solely upon the ground that the probationer has failed to file the reports, unless the requirement is made a condition of his probation by the court. In other words, only the court may set the conditions upon which probation may be revoked, and probation may be revoked only for the violation of a condition set by the court.

¶9The order revoking appellant's probation is reversed with directions to the court to remand appellant to the Department of Offender Rehabilitation for the continuation of his probation under the conditions as originally set out or for the assumption of additional conditions that the court may find proper. See Section 948.03(2), Florida Statutes (1975).

¶10Reversed and remanded.

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