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Florida treats domestic violence allegations very seriously. If you’ve been arrested after an argument with a spouse, relative, romantic partner or roommate got out of hand, here are a few things you need to know:
You can make your situation worse by contacting the alleged victim and trying to get them to drop the charges. That could get you charged with a violation of a restraining order (if you have one) or witness intimidation (even if that isn’t your intention).
Similarly, you don’t want to ask friends or relatives to step in and act on your behalf with an appeal to the alleged victim to change their story. Whether you make contact with the alleged victim directly or someone does it for you, the court is likely to see the situations as the same.
The internet isn’t nearly as anonymous as you may think, and you should anticipate that prosecutors will look at your social media pages for anything they can find that might support their case. As much as you may feel like railing against the injustice of your arrest and the entire case against you, you probably do not want to have any of that read aloud in court.
If you’re facing domestic violence charges, exercise your right to remain silent until you have fully explored your legal options. Talk to an experienced criminal defense attorney as soon as possible.
]]>Following are three examples of situations where evidence may have been obtained illegally:
The Fourth Amendment to U.S. Constitution offers protections against illegal search and seizure. If the police conducted an unlawful search of your person or property, any evidence obtained in the illegal search should be inadmissible in court. Even if the police had a warrant to search your property, the scope of the warrant should be carefully scrutinized. A search warrant must be specific about the property to be searched and the type of evidence to be searched for. For more on warrants and searches, please see our previous posts:
When you are taken into custody, the police are required to tell you that anything you say can be used against you in court. Under the U.S. Constitution, you have the right to remain silent (or the right not to say anything that could be self-incriminating), and you have the right to an attorney. If the police never informed you of these rights when you were arrested or interrogated, the statements you made to police may be inadmissible in court.
Criminal charges may also be dismissed if it can be proven that investigators violated your rights by engaging in entrapment. For more on that, please see our previous posts:
When preparing your defense, every detail of your case matters. An experienced criminal defense attorney can assess your case and scrutinize it for any flaws by police or prosecutors. As soon as you can after an arrest, you should contact a criminal defense attorney to begin developing a defense strategy.
]]>Have you ever heard about police in other countries picking people off the street without explanation, throwing them into jail and leaving them there? That is the sort of thing that due process is meant to prevent.
The inclusion of due process in the U.S. Constitution was crucial to prevent the states from depriving people of liberties that are granted under federal law.
The United States and its legal system must treat you fairly and abide by the rules of due process if the police suspect you of a crime. Here are some things you can expect as part of due process:
Both federal and state courts must adhere to such procedures. If your right to due process is violated, the charge against you may be reduced or dismissed.
There are many legal theories for defending against criminal charges. However, to defend successfully against a charge, you will need an experienced defense attorney with a thorough knowledge of the laws, your rights and all available defense options.
For more on related matters, please see our previous posts:
]]>For a traffic stop to be lawful, the police must have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed. For example, if you were driving erratically, the police may stop you on suspicion of reckless or drunk driving. However, if the police do not have a justifiable reason for pulling you over, the traffic stop may be unlawful. In many cases, the police claim to have a good reason for a traffic stop, but the reason provided by police later in court turns out not to be valid.
Suppose the police pull you over without a legally justifiable reason, and during the traffic stop, the police search your car and find illegal drugs. In that case, since the traffic stop was unlawful, you may challenge the legality of evidence obtained against you from the search. Such evidence may be inadmissible in court because the police acquired it during an unlawful traffic stop.
Inadmissible evidence can have a major impact on a criminal case. For example, if the court throws out a key piece of evidence in the prosecution’s case against you, that could lead to a reduction or dismissal of charges.
When faced with a criminal charge, many people give up and take a plea deal because they are not aware of their rights. Even when the evidence against you seems overwhelming, every aspect of your case should be carefully scrutinized for any rights violations or failures in police procedure. To do that, you need an experienced criminal defense attorney — someone who is familiar the details of police procedure and how to get charges reduced or dismissed when rights violations occur.
For more on related matters, please see our previous posts: “Can police in Florida search a person’s trash can?” and “The problem of overcharging in criminal prosecutions.”
]]>Prosecutors often overcharge defendants in hopes that, out of maybe five charges, at least one or two lead to a conviction. A jury may not find the additional charges to be appropriate, so the jury decides the defendant is not guilty of those extra charges. However, overcharging generally does not go away without defense intervention.
For example, without a strong defense, a person could be convicted of a felony when the appropriate charge should have been a misdemeanor. In many cases, faulty evidence from the prosecution should have precluded a particular criminal charge, and it is up to the defense to get the faulty evidence thrown out. This may be the case in all types of criminal trials, including those involving drug charges, violent crime charges, DUI charges and white collar crime charges.
Overcharging is also a way for prosecutors to exert pressure on a defendant. This strategy may be particularly relevant if multiple people are suspected of engaging in a crime. In such a case, the prosecution’s overcharging may be a strategy for getting one defendant to be a witness against another defendant.
If you are facing a criminal charge, you should try to find a criminal defense lawyer who has also worked as a prosecutor. Former prosecutors know how criminal prosecutions work, and a former prosecutor is often best positioned to defend against overcharging. You should find an attorney who is smart, discreet and has a record of success.
For more on effective criminal defense trial strategies, please see our previous post: “Defense narratives: Why primacy and recency matter so much.”
]]>Being convicted of a RICO charge can lead to many years of incarceration, and anyone accused of a RICO offense will need a strong and effective defense strategy. A group of people could face RICO charges if investigators claim the individuals are involved in organized crime. Drug crimes, sex trafficking, auto theft and murder are common types of crimes that prosecutors attempt to lump into RICO prosecutions.
To convict someone of a RICO crime, prosecutors must prove the existence of a criminal enterprise. Prosecutors must then prove that the accused individuals acted in furtherance of the criminal enterprise.
RICO cases often involve long periods of surveillance and investigation by police. RICO cases also frequently involve wiretap evidence, financial documents, business records and confidential informants (CIs). Each of these investigative techniques and types of evidence must be closely scrutinized to mount the strongest possible defense against RICO charges.
In addition to its criminal law components, the Florida RICO statute also has a civil component that allows for the personal property of the accused to be taken by authorities. This aspect of the law is known as civil forfeiture, and in some cases, the entire family of the accused may be deprived of property that was allegedly obtained through a criminal enterprise.
If you or someone you love is being investigated for or charged with organized crime, the importance of early intervention by an experienced criminal defense attorney cannot be overstated. The stakes are high in RICO cases, and you should speak with a criminal defense lawyer before you say anything to police or prosecutors.
]]>You may not think of it this way, but your garbage is also your personal property. Garbage may contain sensitive information that could affect your case if you are facing a criminal charge. Generally, when you throw something away, you have a reasonable expectation that whatever you throw away will be disposed of and not searched by police in an effort to charge you with a crime. In this scenario, “reasonable expectation of privacy” is an important phrase.
Police can search through your garbage only if you do not have a reasonable expectation that the garbage is private. In other words, police need probable cause or a search warrant to search and sift through trash outside your home, inside your home, in your car, or in your pockets, purse or bag — because you generally have a reasonable expectation of privacy in those places. One exception is that police may have grounds to search through trash that is left exposed on the curb outside your home, but even this type of evidence may be disputed in court if it is unclear who placed the trash on the curb.
Maybe police investigators do a so-called “trash pull” from a person’s garbage can, and the investigators find a receipt from a storage facility. On the basis of the receipt, the investigators then execute a search warrant at the storage facility, where they find illegal drugs. Any subsequent criminal charges related to the drugs may be dropped if the police did not have probable cause or a warrant to search the garbage can where the receipt was found.
If you have questions about criminal charges resulting from a search or seizure of property, do not hesitate to contact an experienced criminal defense attorney. The sooner you can get sound legal counsel and representation, the sooner you can start protecting your rights and future.
]]>No contact orders are used both for pretrial release situations while a defendant is out on bail or awaiting trial, as well as during probationary periods. Anyone under a no contact order or potentially facing one should be aware of common situations that can lead to a violation.
Essentially, if you think that an action could possibly violate a no contact order, it is a good idea to assume that you are correct. It is best to proceed with caution and speak to an experienced criminal defense attorney if you have any questions regarding a no contact order. That being said, here are some of the most common ways that people find themselves accused of violating a no contact order:
Mistakes happen. If you find yourself accused of violating of your pretrial release or probation, don’t try to handle the situation on your own without experienced legal guidance.
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