Peterson v. State

SCHEB, Acting Chief Judge.

The defendant, Henry Lewis Peterson, was found guilty by a jury of possession of cocaine with intent to sell or deliver, section 893.13, Florida Statutes (1987). He raises three points on appeal. We find merit in only one of his arguments, yet it mandates that he receive a new trial.

At issue is the arresting officers’ repeated trial characterizations of the area where Peterson was arrested as a “high drug trafficking area.” Indeed, one officer specifically stated that Graham’s Inn, the exact location of Peterson’s arrest, was “one of our known trafficking areas.”…