Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog

People are shoplifting more at Jacksonville, Florida businesses these days, according to an article on Firstcoastnews.com. These businesses are fighting back by placing better security systems in their stores including color cameras to detect people stealing in their stores. Years before, it was fairly rare to see a shoplifting case with good, color security photos that could actually be used to identify the shoplifter. Oftentimes, companies had security cameras with grainy, black and white photos that made it difficult to identify anyone. These cameras were often focused on employees and would not capture any shoplifting or other criminal activity committed by others. As technology has become better and crime has become more prevalent in Jacksonville, companies have moved towards using better security systems that are more capable of preventing shoplifting and other thefts or at least identifying the offender when theft occurs.

In Florida, the crime of shoplifting can be a fairly minor crime or quite serious depending on the value of what is stolen. There is actually no crime called shoplifting in the Florida statutes, although that is a common colloquial term for theft in retail stores. The crime of theft is a misdemeanor if the value of the property stolen is less than $300. Misdemeanors can carry a maximum penalty of 12 months in jail. However, if the value of the property stolen is $300 or more, the theft crime becomes a felony. If the value of the property is high enough or other aggravating facotrs exist, the theft can be considered grand theft and can be a first degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

As many people who follow professional football and sports in general may have heard, a woman accused Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of sexual assault recently. The local police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) have been investigating the claim, although no arrests have been made as of now. In a recent article, it was reported that the GBI has decided not to request a DNA sample from Roethlisberger.

One question that has been asked in response to this story is whether this is a good thing for Roethlisberger. The answer is: not necessarily. To understand that, you have to understand what is meant by the crime sexual battery which is often called sexual assault in the media and outside of the courtroom. Sexual battery in Georgia does not typically mean rape in the sense that most of us understand the word, i.e. sexual intercourse with someone against their will. Sexual battery can include just about any physical contact with the intimate parts of another person without that person's consent. A sexual battery crime certainly does not have to rise to the level of an actual rape, which is a separate crime in Georgia. So, a sexual battery can certainly occur without any DNA evidence being left on the victim or at the scene of the crime.

In Florida, the laws are similar. If someone rapes a person as most of us understand the term, that of course is a serious felony crime. However, if someone has unauthorized physical contact with a person's intimate part(s), but not nonconsensual intercourse, that is a crime as well.

So, to answer the question, it depends on what the woman is saying Roethlisberger did to her. If she is accusing him of having some sort of physical contact with her intimate part(s), then DNA may not be an issue. If that is the case, the GBI withdrawing their request for Roethlisberger's DNA may have no effect on the outcome of the case. If DNA is not an issue and Roethlisberger is ultimately charged with sexual battery or a similar crime, his likely defense will either be consent or that he just did not do it what the victim is alleging.

In most DUI cases in Jacksonville and throughout Florida, the police officer allegedly observes the driver violate some traffic law and pulls him/her over. Once the police officer approaches and interacts with the driver, the officer observes some signs of impairment from alcohol and ultimately requests that the driver submit to a breathalyzer test where the driver blows into the machine which purportedly measures the driver's blood alcohol content.

However, in some cases, the police officer can force the driver to submit to a blood test to measure the driver's blood alcohol content. Most of the time, the forced blood draw cases involve accidents where the driver is seriously injured and unable to blow into the breathalyzer machine. However, an accident is not required for a forced blood draw in a DUI case. What the police and the state do need to establish is that, 1) the police officer had reason to believe the driver was driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs, 2) the driver appears at a hospital or other medical facility for treatment and 3) a breath or urine test is not feasible or the person cannot respond due to some physical or medical condition. If these factors are present, the police officer can request that a medical provider take the blood.

In some cases, the police get the blood, but the required elements are not met. For instance, maybe a person was involved in an accident that rendered him unconscious and the officer smelled alcohol on him. That alone is not sufficient to meet the first requirement that there is sufficient reason to believe the person was impaired by alcohol while driving. Another example would be a person who was injured but not seriously enough to make a breath or urine test impracticable.

Florida law does allow a police officer to force a blood test to measure a person's blood alcohol content in a DUI case. However, if the legal requirements are not met, the results of that blood test can be thrown out of court after the proper motion is filed by the criminal defense lawyer.

A cook working at the Flagler County, Florida jail was arrested for allegedly bringing drugs such as Oxycontin into the jail and giving them to inmates, according to an article on Firstcoastnews.com. Unauthorized possession of prescription drugs like Oxycontin is illegal, but bringing Oxycontin and other things that are not permitted into the jail for the inmates is a separate felony crime in Florida.

Under Florida criminal law, it is a felony to bring into a county jail or detention facility, or attempt to do so, anything the law considers contraband without going through the normal procedures set forth by the sheriff operating the jail. Contraband does not just cover the obvious things like illegal drugs, prescription drugs and weapons, it also includes money, written or recorded communications, food, clothing, tobacco products, medicine and other items. Some of these things can be brought to inmates in the local jails, however, they must first be authorized through the normal channels.

When police find drugs such as marijuana, crack, cocaine and methamphetamine in a particular place, they often arrest everyone in the vicinity of the drugs because they are not sure who exactly owned and/or was in possession of the drugs. However, this is not proper under Florida law, and criminal defense lawyers can often get these cases relying on constructive possession of drugs thrown out of court.

In Florida, there are two ways to possess drugs which can lead to a valid possession of drugs charge. The obvious one is actual possession. If you are holding a bag of marijuana or have a bag of cocaine in your pocket, that is actual possession of drugs. However, even if you do not have the drugs on you, you can still be charged with possession of drugs. The other kind of possession is constructive possession which can also lead to a legitimate possession of drugs charge if the elements can be proven. In order to establish constructive possession, the state has to show that you knew about the drugs and maintained some control over the drugs. For instance, if the police find a bag of marijuana in a room that you live in by yourself in a drawer with your wallet and other items belonging to you, you may not be in actual possession of the drugs but there is an argument that you are in constructive possession of the marijuana. As another example, I am not in my car, but I know I have CD's in my locked car and I have control over them so I am in constructive possession of those CD's.

On the other hand, if I go over to a party at a friend's house and police come in and find a bag of cocaine in the closed cookie jar next to where I am standing, I am not in constructive possession of that cocaine because it cannot be proven that I knew the cocaine was in there or that I had any custody or control over the cocaine. Of course, an incriminating statement admitting knowledge of the drugs can go a long way towards disrupting that defense.

In a recent possession of marijuana case south of Jacksonville, Florida, police responded to a possible burglary call at a vacant residence. The police arrived and saw four people in a room that smelled of marijuana. Two of the people dropped bags of marijuana. The defendant in the case did not have any marijuana on him, but another bag of marijuana was found in the room. The defendant did say he was there to smoke.

The two people who dropped bags of marijuana were properly charged with possession of marijuana. However, the defendant was improperly charged with possession of marijuana, and that charge was ultimately dropped. The defendant did not have any marijuana on him, and the state could not prove that he knew about the bags marijuana and had any sort of custody or control over the marijuana. Of course, his statement about being there to smoke made this a close call. The defendant should have just kept quiet. However, that statement could certainly be interpreted to mean he was there to smoke cigarettes. Because that was a reasonable explanation for his statement, there was insufficient evidence to prove that he was in constructive possession of the marijuana.

The U.S. Senate recently passed a bill that would make sentences for crack cocaine crimes more in line with sentences for similar powder cocaine crimes in federal courts. As it stands now, defendants can be sentenced much more harshly for crack cocaine crimes as opposed to equivalent powder cocaine crimes. In other words, a person can have a relatively small amount of crack cocaine and receive a much higher prison sentence than a person who has an equal or even lesser amount of powder cocaine. The unfairness of this system in federal courts has been discussed for years, and the Obama administration has given a clear indication of its intent to move towards equalizing the two crimes or at least pulling sentences closer together.

The bill that passed in the Senate does not go as far as making crack cocaine and powder cocaine crimes equal in terms of penalties, but it does reduce the disparity when a person is sentenced for crack cocaine crimes versus powder cocaine crimes. The bill also eliminates minimum mandatory sentences for people charged with simple possession of crack cocaine.

The bill making crack cocaine and powder cocaine sentences more similar, though not equal, is not yet the law. The bill still has to go through the normal legislative process. However, it is likely that at some point in the future, crack cocaine sentences and powder cocaine sentences will get in the same ballpark. But until that happens, the sentences for crack cocaine cases are much more serious than sentences for powder cocaine cases in federal courts.

A Jacksonville woman was sentenced to 15 years in the Florida state prison after a guilty verdict in a vehicular homicide case. According to police and prosecutors, the woman was driving after taking Ambien, Xanax, cocaine and other drugs. She hit and killed a pedestrian on the Trout River Bridge in Jacksonville before crashing her vehicle. Prosecutors ultimately charged her with vehicular homicide which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The crime of vehicular homicide in Florida can be committed in various ways. Most people are familiar with the term DUI manslaughter which often involves a person who is impaired by alcohol causing an accident that results in the death of another person. However, according to the Florida statute, the crime of vehicular homicide can be committed by a person who is intoxicated by alcohol, by illegal drugs, by legal prescription drugs or not intoxicated at all.

The crime of vehicular homicide does not necessarily require that a person is intoxicated or impaired, but rather focuses on whether a person is driving recklessly and causes a death. There is no clear definition of reckless driving but it is viewed as driving that is above and beyond more routine negligent driving that is likely to cause an accident with serious injury or death. An example of negligent driving which is not sufficient for a vehicular homicide charge would be speeding or running a red light. An example of reckless driving would be excessive speeding in a residential or school zone or driving while impaired by alcohol and/or drugs. In most cases, the reckless driving is caused by alcohol and/or illegal drugs. However, alcohol and/or illegal drugs are not a requirement. There are cases where a person is charged with vehicular homicide without alcohol or illegal drugs being involved. But in those cases, there is usually some very dangerous driving or some other factor that made it likely that the driver would cause a serious accident resulting in death or serious injury.

Police in Columbia County, Florida (which is just over an hour west of Jacksonville, Florida) arrested a man after they allegedly found 112 grams of cocaine in his home, according to an article on News4jax.com. When police arrest someone for being in possession of any drug, whether it is crack, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine or some other drug, the quantity of the drugs often dictate what the actual criminal charge will be. If there is a small amount of drugs, the charge is often simple possession of the drugs. This will be a misdemeanor if the drug is marijuana and the amount is less than 20 grams. Otherwise, for small amounts of drugs like crack, cocaine, heroine, methamphetamine and pills without a prescription, the possession charge will be a third degree felony which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison but is often considered much less seriously by the state and the judge.

However, when the quantity of illegal drugs found is larger, the possible penalties under Florida law get much larger as well. For cocaine, that threshold amount is 28 grams or more. If a person has between 28 and less than 200 grams of cocaine in his/her possession, he/she can, and likely will, be charged with trafficking in cocaine which carries a minimum mandatory sentence of three years in prison. Of course, the sentence is always negotiable by the criminal defense lawyer and prosecutor, but when the amount of drugs reaches that trafficking threshold, the state has much more leverage because of the three year minimum mandatory prison sentence.

Police in Jacksonville seem to focus on underaged people drinking at the major events in Jacksonville. It seems as if after most, if not all, big events in Jacksonville, such as the Georgia-Florida game, the Gator Bowl, concerts and other events, there is an article in the paper about the large number of arrests for underaged drinking. As criminal defense lawyers in Jacksonville, Florida, we get most of our calls from people arrested for underaged drinking after such events. For example, at the recent sold out Monster Jam at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, law enforcement gave 38 people notices to appear citations for underaged drinking.

An arrest for underaged drinking in Florida would appear to be a fairly minor ordeal, although it is a misdemeanor crime. Many times, the police officer does not actually arrest the person but gives him/her what appears to be a ticket, or notice to appear in court at a later date, instead. Everyone must understand that on a person's criminal record, that ticket is the equivalent of an actual arrest. For those people who are actually arrested for underaged drinking, they will be in front of a judge within 24 hours and are normally given an offer of time served upon a guilty or no contest plea.

While the misdemeanor charge of underaged drinking is hardly ever going to be serious, the problem is that a guilty or no contest plea can have a serious effect on a person's criminal record and their ability to seal or expunge that record in the future. Florida law does allow people to seal or expunge a criminal record one time in certain circumstances, depending on the crime, the disposition and other factors. However, if a person is adjudicated guilty on any crime, the law does not allow that person to have any other crime sealed or expunged. So, if a person gets arrested or gets a notice to appear on an underaged drinking charge and enters a plea of guilty or no contest thinking that is the quickest and easiest resolution, the judge may likely adjudicate that person guilty. If the judge does adjudicate the person guilty and that person gets a more serious charge in the future that is dropped or adjudication is withheld, the old underaged drinking charge may prevent that person from sealing or expunging the second, more serious charge.