South Florida Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Renaldo Balkman, 25, was arrested by police in Temple Terrace for suspicion of driving under the influence. Balkman refused to comply with officers’ request of a blood-alcohol test. HIllborough County Sheriff’s Office stated that Balkman was released on $500 bond soon after his arrest. Refusing to comply with a breath test in Florida does not automatically result in a revocation of one’s license unlike what many people might claim. The Denver Nugget’s star was left out of the commentary by executive of the basketball team Mark Warkentien.

If you have been arrested for driving under the influence, you have only ten days to file a written demand for an administrative hearing with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Failure to do so could also result in the suspension of your driver’s license.

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Mark Pinder and Parson Exana have pleaded guilty on charges of smuggling cocaine from the Bahamas into Florida. The two men were arrested by Palm Beach County police on May 26 in a Jupiter parking lot. The cocaine moved by the men was estimated to be at a street value of $500,000. Pinder and Exana face a $4 million fine in lieu of the charges, not to mention life in prison.

Cocaine possession, cocaine delivery, cocaine trafficking, in fact all criminal cases filed in Fort Lauderdale, Miami and throughout the state of Florida in which the state seeks criminal sanction for possession of controlled substances begins with a study of Florida statute 893. Statute begins by defining the important words and phrases used in this chapter. In a prosecution for possession of cocaine or possession of any other controlled substance begins with an indictment, which is called prosecutor information, under this statute.

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Anastasia Usher, 31, was arrested for child neglect, armed trafficking of cocaine, and possession of cocaine. Other charges of maintaining a drug dwelling with minors present were also added. The charges against Usher were not assisting in her maintaining custody of her children because of the fact that they showed her to be negligent as a mother. Police say she was held on a substantial bond after the arrest and will face court sentencing in the near future.

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DUIs in Florida may be getting a pass after the recent mess up in Broward County. Circuit Judge Lee Jay Seidman will rule on a request that all DUI charges be dismissed based on the fact that the breathalyzer systems in place recently were handled improperly thus becoming inadmissible in court. FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) recently fired the employee responsible for the 79 breathalyzer machines in operation throughout Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. The employee turned off power to a small number of them before inspection because they “looked like they would fail.”

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Albert Guilder, 66, was charged and convicted of attempted murder in the death of Zilvinas Kuliusas in the 2006 shooting. Guilder will be looking at up to 25 years in prison, minimum. The two men were involved sexually with a Russian immigrant, and Guilder was said to have “felt jealous and threatened.” Kuliusas, 33, was shot by Guilder in what he claimed as self-defense. Guilder had called the police due to evidence he saw that child abuse was taking place with Korzum’s children by Kuliusas. The complicated situation ended with Kuliusas coming over to shoot Guilder, then with Guilder shooting back in self-defense. Somehow the fight went into an SUV and continued at 45 mph down a local road. The prosecution “scoffed at Guilder’s ‘incredible’ testimony and theory of self defense.”

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Roy Cleary, 35, and Leslie Woody, 33, have been arrested and charged with prescription drug fraud by police in Mississippi. Cleary is a resident of Miami yet was caught with the crime he committed up in Iowa. The two tampered with medical records in order to get prescription pills out of a hospital in the western Iowa area. Iowa police say that Cleary attempted to get drugs by going to the emergency room under the pretense of having a shoulder injury. A false address was used by Cleary in the forms to obtain prescription pills, as well as a false signature on all the documents.

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In a strange arrest over the weekend, William Scott Clark, 43, and Elizabeth Haley, 22, were arrested on production of marijuana charges and possession of an explosive device. After a standard protocol traffic stop conducted by Osceola Police led to a small amount of marijuana, an even larger amount of marijuana was found at the home of the individuals stopped earlier. Haley voluntarily led sheriffs back to the couple’s trailer located at Cypress Cove in Kissimmee. The investigation there led to a discovery of numerous firearms ranging from a .50 caliber sniper rifle to a semi-automatic Browning “machine” gun. Exotic pets and a voodoo doll with needles stuck in it was found at the scene as well. A few indoor-growing lights were found inside but the marijuana in conjunction with the lights was gone, according to police. Clark made a statement that he possesses licensing for all the firearms and ATF approval for the machine guns.

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Gabriel Soto Garcia, 37, was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in a state prison for conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and trafficking in cocaine in excess of 400 grams. Central Florida was the prime location where all the trafficking in cocaine took place, according to investigators. From their introduction of the drug onto the street there, they would distribute to drug dealers spread all over the area.

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