South Florida Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
Florida criminal courts handle juveniles in a separate criminal division. A juvenile is under eighteen years old. The prosecutor can charge a juvenile in adult court and seek adult sanctions: this is referred to as a “direct file” case. The decision is entirely up to the State Attorney for the district; Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Miami-Dade are all independent criminal jurisdictions, that means the prosecutor is elected and each prosecutor (State Attorney) sets policy for his district’s criminal courts. Fort Lauderdale (Broward County), West Palm Beach and Miami (Miami-Dade County) are all different and juveniles get treated differently, it is a matter of policy, not law. Florida criminal laws also permit judges to overrule the decision to “direct file” on a juvenile: that is to seek adult sanctions. Florida criminal laws (Section 958), the “Youthful Offender Statute” permits a Florida criminal court judge to impose a maximum six year sentence (any combination of sanctions from probation to incarceration) on a juvenile, but, the sentence must be imposed before their twenty-first birthday. If you, or a family member, has been arrested in South Florida, contact criminal defense lawyer Ralph Behr for a free consultation
A Drug Arrest in Florida Doesn’t Have to Give You A Felony Record
Since the Florida Legislature created the Drug Court Diversion program, many South Florida criminal courts have created “Drug Courts”. Here is how it works: If you have been arrested and charged with possession of cocaine, or possession of marijuana (Cannabis) or oxycodone, or other drugs (controlled substances) you can avoid a conviction by requesting Drug Court. Admission in Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Miami criminal courts is only by request, so make sure your South Florida Criminal Lawyer knows how to get you into Drug Court. Fort example, some lawyers file Discovery Demands immediately: this blocks you from Drug Court. Have you Florida criminal lawyer file the motion to transfer your drug arrest from felony court to drug court. If you have no prior felony convictions, and no gun or weapons convictions, you can get into drug court. After the one year program your case is nolle prossed. That means you will have no felony record. In Florida a felony conviction means you cannot vote, cannot own a gun, and have to report to the Sherriff when you move. Drug court is a once-in-a-lifetime option and a true gift. Ask your Florida criminal defense lawyer to explain the drug court option.
How to Set Aside Your Florida Conviction When Deportation Threatens
Since the September 11th terrorist attacks, the newly formed Department of Homeland Security has decided that the best way to secure the homeland is to deport as many people as possible. This horror is inflicted on our most productive and hardest working residents with tragic results. Here’s how the system now works: If you have a felony conviction in your past you are sure to be contacted and sent a removal notice. The removal notice begins deportation. If you have a felony conviction in Florida, contact a South Florida criminal defense attorney and ask about the procedure to withdraw your plea and vacate the conviction. In Florida the procedure is known as post-conviction relief under Rule 3.850 of the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure. The formal name is a Motion to Vacate, Set Aside or Correct Sentence. Contact a Florida criminal defense lawyer and ask what grounds exist to file a 3.850 motion and set aside your conviction. There is a two year rule that begins two years after your conviction, or two years after you become aware of the defect in your plea. There are other methods of appealing and extending the two year rule: for example ineffective assistance of counsel or a violation of the constitutional requirements of a plea colloquy. Call a Florida criminal lawyer for help and get started immediately. Make sure the Florida criminal lawyer you hire has extensive experience in appeals and post conviction work. It is often easy for a newby to miss an issue which can get your sentence set aside.
Your Right to Bail is in the United States Constitution
After an arrest a detained person is brought before an impartial magistrate (a judge) and has a right to a reasonable condition of release. It is the law. The only exceptions to bail are for capital charges, armed drug trafficking, kidnapping and some federal terrorist charges. At the bond hearing you have the right to be represented by an attorney. The magistrate must set a reasonable bond. A reasonable bond is one that is possible for the individual, not some arbitrary amount or standard bond. Pre-trial release is a favored program in Fort Lauderdale, where it has been recently expanded to permit non-indigent criminal defendants to be released with GPS monitors and travel restrictions. All criminal courts in South Florida hold bond hearings 365 days a year. Miami criminal courts, both federal and Florida criminal courts, set conditions of bond that permit the posting of a guarantee by personal surety, Fort Lauderdale (Broward County) does not: there you are required to post the cash amount or have a bond agent issue a “power number” for the bond amount.
Extradition: Not Your First Choice for a Trip to Fort Lauderdale
An outstanding warrant means a trip to Fort Lauderdale, usually by jitney bus in leg irons. It can take between four and ten days, and the hotels on the way prepare you for a stay at the Fort Lauderdale jail. Not so nice. A warrant, (also called a capias if issued by a judge from the bench), is a pick-up order. All States share the outstanding warrants lists and will hold you until the State that wants you either agrees to pay the transportation (issues a “governors warrant”) or says pass, in which case you are released. If you have been arrested in Fort Lauderdale or Miami, on a Florida criminal charge, or a federal criminal charge, a warrant is issued until you appear before a judge and are granted bail or pre-trial release. If you fail to appear at any court-set hearing a capias (warrant) is issued. Violations of probation warrants are the most common, and the most common violation of probation warrants are issued for missing a check-in with your probation officer, or leaving Florida and moving without permission and without the receiving State agreeing to supervise the probation or community control. Both Federal criminal courts and Fort Lauderdale and Miami criminal courts hear violation of probation matters. If you have been arrested or have reason to believe a violation of probation warrant is out there: call a criminal defense attorney and let him/her help you.
Criminal Arrests In Fort Lauderdale and Miami Florida
Miami led Florida counties in arrests last year with a total of 154,257. Miami criminal arrests numbers are for Miami – Dade county which includes the major cities of Hialeah (11,765 arrests), Miami Beach (12,740) and the City of Miami (57,466 arrests). Broward County arrests last year totaled 90,820. Included in the Broward totals are the major cities: Fort Lauderdale (13,940 arrest), Hollywood (8,203 arrests), Pompano Beach (6,705 arrests) and Davie (5,097 arrests). The Florida Department of Law Enforcement website has more arrest totals and information on criminal histories, a sex offender database, and unsolved homicides.
Waiting For the Call? Extradition and South Florida Criminal Courts
A client of mine in 2009 paid over $1000.00 for extradition costs when he was arrested in New York on a Fort Lauderdale violation of probation warrant and transported to jail in Fort Lauderdale. He then waited ten days in jail before he saw a judge. Fort Lauderdale and Miami criminal courts have outstanding violation of probation warrants that are active in the national search system available to every police officer in their cruiser (cop car). If you missed a court date, or left Florida before completing probation call any Florida criminal lawyer and have him/her check for you. It’s not always bad news….some lawyers have mastered Due Process motions to dismiss violation of probation warrants that are very old. Your lawyer can file motions for reprimand hearings or early termination hearings on violation of probations and quash warrants that are legally defective or filed after expiration of a probation term. Miami and Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyers are your problem solvers if you are proactive and don’t wait to be extradited. So if you think there may be an outstanding violation of probation warrant for you, contact any Florida criminal defense lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, or Miami, today. You will get a better result if you walk into court voluntarily then if you are dragged in from jail.
White Lite? Federal Judge Gives “light” Sentence to While Collar Criminal
Thinking of adding your name to the growing list of white collar criminals with your own brand of Ponzi? Here’s some advice: New York’s federal courts are sympathetic to late lifers who commit white collar crimes. New York Federal Judge Jack B. Weinstein gave a nine year prison term to sixty year old Edward T. Stein who defrauded his investors out of $46,000.000.00, yes… 46 million…a trifle for our local boy Mr. Rothstein. So open a hedge fund with your social security check and go at it! Federal criminal defense attorneys, like me, are anxious to file change of venue motions to move our federal white collar criminal cases to Brooklyn Federal Court for a more ‘sympathetic’ judge. Our South Florida federal criminal judges give out longer sentences. Maybe this will cause a reverse tide of scammers….imagine Mr. Rothstein’s New York branch? So round up your hedge fund white collar scammers, call your “client”-victims and move North! Yahoooooo!
Elin Nordegren Wife of Tiger Woods; Domestic Violence and the Law
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.
New Drug Court Rules in Fort Lauderdale
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.