Articles Posted in Florida Criminal Defense

Incidents of major crime ticked up in 2008 over the previous year but were significantly down from 10 years ago, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which today released the annual statewide crime report. “The number one priority of government is to make our neighborhoods safe and secure for Floridians,” Gov. Charlie Crist said in prepared statement included in the announcement. “Our state is committed to implementing the necessary tools and resources to deter criminal activity and protect the people.”

The report also said that domestic violence offenses dropped by 1.8 percent compared with the previous year. Nonviolent crime, which includes burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft, increased 1.7 percent, the report said.

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In kneejerk fashion, Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania is expected to call on federal and state lawmakers to pass stricter gun control laws in the wake of the shooting deaths of three Pittsburgh police officers. Rendell was scheduled to hold a news conference this afternoon with Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and other municipal officials from around the state.

Rendell told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he will ask the Legislature to allow municipalities to enact their own gun laws. In addition, spokesmen for Ravenstahl and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter say they expect Rendell to ask Congress to re-enact a ban on assault weapons.

Authorities say Richard Poplawski was armed with a rifle and other weapons when he allegedly shot three Pittsburgh officers earlier this month.

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William Joe Mitchell, 48, pled guilty to charges that he knowingly transported a minor in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. In a plea hearing held before Federal Magistrate Judge Terry F. Moorer, Mitchell admitted that he had met the minor, a 15-year old female, in an online chat room, and that on October 1, 2007, he drove her from Bartow, Florida, to Andalusia, Alabama, with the intent to have sex with her. Mitchell also admitted knowing that the girl was underage. Title 18, United States Code, Section 2423(a) makes it a crime for any person to knowingly transport an individual who has not attained the age of 18 in interstate commerce with intent that the individual engage in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense.

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Recently a federal appeals court has maintained authority on enforcing a current law regarding sex offenders registering with authorities when moving from state to state. U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell of Orlando, Fla., erred when he ruled the registration provision of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 was “facially unconstitutional,” a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in two opinions. The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, part of the Walsh law, were the specific issues in the upheld ruling. John Badalamenti, an assistant federal public defender in Tampa, says Congress overstepped its boundaries because the states enforce registration requirements.

Sex offenders, take notice that whenever you move , in or out of your probation, you MUST always notify the feds AND the state that you are doing so. Don’t risk it or just plain ignore the rules by not telling officials.

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BocaNews.com

“Operation No Excuses” was carried out by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with State Attorney Michael McAuliffe, with a new additional investigative tool at the ready; blood analysis. “This saturation patrol included the additional investigative tool of applying for search warrants seeking a court order to obtain a sample of blood,” said a statement from PBSO. “The purpose of the warrant is to establish the person’s blood alcohol level through a blood sample.” At the end of the evening, no blood was drawn. 38 DUIs were made and 717 citations, so police considered it a good evening.

In addition to PBSO and the state attorney’s office, police from a number of area communities – Boca Raton and Delray Beach among them – were involved. So were the Florida Highway Patrol and the Department of Environmental Management.

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William Edward Ham, 31, was arrested a week ago on charges of felony DUI manslaughter. He is being held without bail at Orient Road Jail in Tampa, FL. Not only was he arrested under a new charge of driving under the influence, but he violated his probation as well. Ham was found passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle by a police officer who stopped behind him at a traffic light. Ham failed to continue through at the green light and thus the alerted officer got out of her vehicle and woke Ham up from his drunken stupor. He then reported tried to give the officer $20s in his severely drunken state.

According to his probation, Ham was not allowed to be in possession or under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol.

DUI, violation of probation, and DUI manslaughter are ridiculous crimes that people commit every day with no reprehensibility in their minds. Ham was obviously drunk, a repeat offender, and a potentially violent criminal.

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ORLANDO, FL

Two rapists have turned themselves in to authorities after perpetrating their recent crime on an 11 year old. Authorities say the two confessed to the crime conducted on the Florida girl as she was on her way to school. She was held at knifepoint then pulled into a car being driven by the two individuals. Then she was taken several blocks away to a vacant house where she was raped. Police received a tip on the phone lines later that day confirming DNA that was found on the victim. Orange County Sheriff’s Office are giving Richard Morales-Marin, 23, and Juan Hernandez Monzalvo, 24, charges of kidnapping and rape.

Sex crimes damage the community at large, not just individuals. People get hurt in the process and there is little offer of forgiveness to the criminals who commit such crimes. This incident is just one of many that continue to happen when sexual offenders are in the vicinity of schools and playgrounds that hold their potential prey. Be watchful of your children and make sure they don’t walk alone to school or talk to strangers without adults they know around.

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Christina Garcia of Polk County, Florida, has been charged with two counts of domestic violence in the abuse of her daughter Mercades Nichols. Nichols claimed the two had a verbal argument that progressed rapidly into a physical altercation. Police statement report Nichols saying she was “grabbed by her hair, kicked … several times in the pelvic area and spit [on] her face.” Another fight between the two broke out an hour later after the subsiding of the first confrontation. Nichols is no innocent in this incident. In 2008, she was charged in the videotaping of a beating of another teen in Polk County.

Domestic violence is a destructive crime that separates families, homes, and lives. In this incident, a mother and daughter were amidst the fog of conflict and struck blows to each other. Whenever assault and then battery are evident in some encounter, the results can never be good unless it was in self-defense.

Florida Statute defines “domestic violence” as:

any assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking, aggravated stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment, or any criminal offense resulting in physical injury or death of one family or household member by another family or household member.

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The first case in Florida regarding legal gun storage in cars on employer parking lots is being tested. A Boca Raton funeral employee is suing his company for firing him on the premise that he had a gun in the parking lot of his place of employment. He is claiming that the employer violated the new state law that permits people with concealed-weapons licensing to have their firearms secured in their cars on workplace property. A spokesman for the funeral parlor declined to comment on the situation. The accusations that Collazo, 36, even had a gun on the premises were said to be made by two anonymous tipsters in the area claiming to have seen ” a bulge in his pocket” which resembled a gun.

This is groundbreaking legal news as far as concealed weapons on employee property goes. The “Preservation and Protection of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Motor Vehicles Act of 2008” states that:

The statute provides that an “employer”—that is, a business with at least one worker who has a concealed carry permit—may not: (1) prohibit a worker with a concealed-carry permit from securing a gun in a vehicle in a parking lot;(2) prohibit a customer—whether or not he or she has a concealed-carry permit—from securing a gun in a vehicle in a parking lot; (3) ask a worker with a concealed carry permit or a customer whether he or she has a gun in a vehicle in a parking lot, take any action against such a worker or against a customer based on a statement about whether the worker or customer has a gun in a vehicle in a parking lot for lawful purposes, or search a vehicle in a parking lot for a gun; (4) condition employment on whether a person has a concealed-carry permit; (5) terminate a worker with a concealed-carry permit, or otherwise discriminate against such a worker, or expel a customer, for having a gun in a vehicle on the business’s property, unless the gun is exhibited on the property. A business that does not have at least one worker with a concealed-carry permit is not subject to any of these provisions.

Certain places of employment do not allow guns at work under law, but storing of your firearm securely in your car at work is OKAY. Be sure to follow this blog to see where the courts go with this one.

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A prominent South Florida defense lawyer and fellow classmate of mine from the good old days of law school at Hofstra, Norm Kent, posted a write-up on a book I recently published, Can The Police Lie To Me?, regarding laws in an easy-to-read format. I just would like to thank Norm for the free advertisement and would also like to point how the ‘non-lawyer’ person should have some method of obtaining information regarding the law as it is pertinent to them.

Did you know that the police can search you on the basis of someone’s lie? This is true, BUT anything found under the search can be thrown out under the following tests: basis of the informant’s knowledge, veracity, credibility, reliability, and totality of the circumstances.

Don’t be intimidated by anyone and especially the police, if you are a legal citizen in your actions. The book also has many other important pieces of information that you might be interested in learning.

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