Articles Posted in Florida Criminal Defense

The Wall Street Journal and Slate, continue to ask why local authorities in Florida have not charged Elin Nordgren, wife of Tiger Woods, with aggravated battery.

Florida’s domestic violence law, and the State’s policy of gender-neutral enforcement, has run up against a wall of silence from Florida authorities charged with enforcing the law. Florida’s Aggravated Battery statute has been used by prosecutors throughout Florida in domestic violence cases. The Florida Highway Patrol’s investigation is still active and has not been made public.

On January 22, 2010 the chief administrative judge of the 17th Judicial Circuit (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) issued a new administrative rule which allows Drug Court to accept criminal defendants in Florida with substance abuse problems, even if their drug charges are more than mere possession. Prior to the new rule the only defendants charged with drug possession, such as possession of cocaine, or possession of oxycodone could be admitted to drug court. The expanded rule does not permit those charged with trafficking in cocaine or trafficking in cannabis (marijuana) to enter drug court, but it does permit Florida criminal defendants with drug delivery or drug paraphernalia charges to be admitted. Call your local Florida criminal defense lawyer in Fort Lauderdale for an update on the new rule. Florida criminal defense lawyer Ralph Behr filed the first legal motion to admit one of his drug arrest clients into the drug court program. This will be the first test case to admit a cocaine delivery criminal defendant in Florida into drug court. Stay tuned for an update in March of 2010.

First: deal with it NOW! Call your Florida criminal defense lawyer and do the following:

1) Read your “Final Disposition” issued by the Judge at your sentencing hearing: note all ‘special conditions’ that were imposed.
2) Read the Florida criminal statute which lists the standard conditions of probation.
3) Have your Florida criminal defense lawyer obtain a copy of your violation of probation warrant and see exactly what violations are alleged in the warrant.
4) Have your criminal lawyer deal with the probation officer and the prosecutor to work towards a resolution.

Not all violations are major enough to send you to jail. But being an absconder (away for a long time) is almost always enough to get you a jail term. Your first court appearance is where you either admit or deny the alleged violations. If you deny the prosecutor has ten days to prepare for a violation of probation Evidentiary Hearing. At that hearing the prosecutor has to prove the violations with witnesses or evidence. Sadly, Florida criminal law permits hearsay to be admitted at violation of probation evidentiary hearings. Call your Florida criminal defense lawyer for an opinion on the violation. Some violations of probation are technical or minor and will not expose you to a jail sentence.

Our national government in Washington, D.C. duplicates many Florida criminal laws. Florida criminal laws are enforced by the State of Florida in our State criminal courts. The U.S. government enforces its own set of federal criminal laws in federal criminal courts. Criminal defense attorneys have to be licensed to appear in each court. Florida criminal courts are conducted under the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure. Federal criminal courts have their own Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The rules are very different and being familiar with them is essential for criminal defense lawyers. Filing dates and times, rules of evidence, motion practice; all differ significantly. Federal criminal cases have different views of search and seizure, confessions, proper and improper police procedures than Florida criminal laws. Florida has its own constitution which differs from our U.S. federal constitution. Although Florida constitutional rights can give greater protections and safeguards from governmental reach into the lives of Florida residents it cannot lessen or diminish those rights guaranteed by our federal constitution..

Violation of Probation problems start with a warrant request from a probation officer. If you, or someone close to you, is on probation in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood or Palm Beach, start with knowing the terms and conditions of your probation. A Violation of Probation warrant must list the condition and how it was violated. Some probation conditions are considered “technical” others are “substantive”, i.e. some are not important enough to get one violated, others are. The conclusion of a technical vs. a substantive violation is made by a sentencing judge at a violation of probation hearing.

Step One: KNOW your probation conditions. They appear in your sentencing order, in the probation statute, or ask your probation officer. Step Two: keep close contact with your probation officer. Most violations are merely a matter of bad communication or missed check-ins. A violation of probation warrant means you will be picked-up and held in jail until a judge can hold the first of two hearings. At your first hearing you admit or deny the allegations contained in the Violation of Probation warrant. If you deny them you will be held over (usually a minimum of ten days) and then you can have a Violation of Probation Evidentiary Hearing. The State must prove the condition was in your probation and that it was violated. An experienced South Florida Criminal Defense lawyer from Miami or Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Davie or most of the towns in Broward County usually has his law office near the Courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Like a surgeon needs to be close-by his hospital, a real criminal defense lawyer is located near to the Fort Lauderdale jail and courthouse. Call for a free consultation if you have any questions or issues related to probation or a violation of probation warrant from courts in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach or South Florida.

Florida has its own set of criminal laws. Each State has their own laws. In addition we are all subject to Federal (US government) criminal laws. Both Federal criminal drug trafficking statutes and Florida drug trafficking laws exist and we can be arrested in South Florida and be charged in either Federal Court for a violation of federal criminal laws OR Florida courts (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, or any other Florida jurisdiction) and charged with a crime in Florida. Federal drug trafficking punishments are different from those of Florida. A basic understanding of federal drug trafficking punishments is posted here on this website (press HERE to go to Federal drug trafficking punishment chart). For an understanding of what it means to be arrested in South Florida and charged with a drug charge, such as drug trafficking, delivery of a controlled substance, possession of cocaine, or possession of any controlled substance: call a South Florida criminal lawyer for more information.

In these hard economic times it is a welcome gift for criminal defendants in Fort Lauderdale jails to be offered GPS bracelets and let out of jail without posting bail. The Pre-Trial Release Program, originally intended for indigent defendants, has broadened itself to embrace criminal defendants who have the financial resources to pay for their bond. The explosive growth of the government financed program has become the focus of a major political struggle. Supporters of expanding Pre-Trial Release are maligning Bail and Bond agents who insist they can do the job of getting criminal defendants to court for less money. Bond Agents say Pre-Trial Release should be pared back and limited to indigents only. State Senator John Thrasher (Republican from Jacksonville) has introduced a controversial bill in the Florida Senate that will curtail Pre-Trial Release. The bill would limit the program to the indigent. National Public Radio shined a national spotlight on this issue in a radio report aired in late January 2010 which did little to calm the waters. The broadcast inflamed the already heated fight by allegedly airing false statistics about the program’s success rate and cost.

Probation is a sentence, not a condition of pre-trial release or bond. If you have been placed on probation by a Judge in Florida you need to read and understand the standard conditions of probation. The standard provisions of probation in Florida appear in Florida Statute 948. [Press HERE to go to the statute]. A violation of probation is a serious matter. Most probationers in Florida violate at one point in the term of their probation. If you are on probation and have any questions that are not answered clearly by your probation officer call

Continue reading →

Anyone arrested in South Florida (Fort Lauderdale or any community in Broward County) is brought before a Magistrate and bail (bond is bail) is set, (or denied) according to the type of crime charged and the persons’ personal situation. The bail or bond sets conditions and/or the money which must be posted for release. Once released from incarceration, you are free to go home. (the article continues….go to page 2)

Continue reading →

A joint task force originating in Tallahassee under the control of Florida’s Attorney General, Bill McCollum, sought and obtained a conviction of Samuel Johnson and over 30 others for Drug violations and for cocaine trafficking. The task force announced the drug trafficking ring operated in South Florida from Miami to mid-Florida (Flagler County and St. Augustine). The conviction resulted in a 35 year prison sentence followed by 30 years of probation. The mass arrest and trial involved more than 30 individuals. The prosecution was done by the Office of Statewide Prosecution. Many of the individuals were charged with trafficking in cocaine from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach and Hollywood. The court also imposed a one million dollar fine on Johnson. The cocaine trafficking charges alleged at least 25 kilograms of cocaine was distributed over a six to eight month period covered in the trafficking in cocaine prosecution. Law enforcement agencies from South Florida, Broward, Miami, Flagler County and Putnam County Florida were involved in the investigation and prosecution. The street value of the cocaine was estimated at between 1.5 and 2 million dollars.