Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog

In a recent trafficking in cocaine case that occurred south of Jacksonville, Florida, the criminal case was dismissed after the court found that the drugs were illegally seized when the police entered the defendant's home without consent, a search warrant or exigent circumstances. In order for the police to lawfully enter one's residence, they must either have consent to enter, a valid search warrant or emergency circumstances.

In this case, the suspect called the police after a robbery occurred at his apartment. The police arrived approximately 30 minutes after the robbers left the apartment. When the police arrived, the robbery was clearly over and there was no indication that any of the robbers were in the area. However, the police entered the defendant's apartment without permission and found cocaine and other drugs inside. At that point, the person who called the police was arrested for trafficking cocaine and possession of illegal pills.

The criminal defense lawyer for the defendant filed a motion to suppress the drugs found in the apartment and asserted that the police did not have a right to be in his apartment in the first place since the defendant did not give them permission to enter, the police did not have a search warrant and there were no exigent circumstances allowing the entry and search. The state argued that the recent robbery provided the exigent circumstances to justify the entry and search. The state argued that because a robbery had just occurred and the suspects could be inside the apartment, the police had a right to look for them. This might be true and a legitimate basis for a search without a warrant if the robbery was recent and there were some specific facts leading the police to believe the robbers were still in the apartment. However, the police could not point to any specific facts indicating there was anything in the apartment related to the robbery that needed to be searched on an emergency basis. As a result, there was no legitimate basis for the police to enter the apartment, and the search for the drugs was found to be illegal. The drugs were thrown out of court along with the drug charges.

Drug tests are used for a variety of reasons in the criminal justice system. They are used by pretrial services in Federal court to see if a person recently arrested tests positive for drugs in reference to a bond request. They are used by the probation officers in the state system to make sure probationers are not using drugs. A positive test in either circumstance can result in the person being in violation of his/her probation and being put back in jail. Employers, school officials, coaches, parents and others may use drug tests for various reasons.

According to a recent article, a new product called DrugWipe, is available that can tell is a person has used seven different kinds of drugs with 100% accuracy, according to a recent article on News4Jax.com. According to the manufacture of DrugWipe, the product is wiped across a non-porous surface that the person has recently touched, and it can determine if that [person has used one or more for the various illegal drugs. Currently, drug testers typically use urine tests. There are certain products on the market that can mask the results of a urine-based drug test. Additionally, those tests can only show the results of certain types of drugs.

It remains to be seen whether this new product is accurate in detecting drugs in a person’s system.

A Jacksonville, Florida man was recently arrested for the crime of murder by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO) four years after he allegedly beat the victim, according to an article on News4Jax.com. Apparently, the suspect beat his girlfriend four years ago so badly that she was rendered a quadriplegic and forced to live in a nursing home for the past four years. The victim recently died, and the suspect was rearrested on murder charges.

Cases like this when the death occurs so long after the alleged incident are rare, but they do happen and the state is permitted to charge the suspect with murder years after the original incident occurred. This is because there is no statute of limitations for the crime of murder. In Florida, any capital felony, life felony or felony that results in a death may be charged at any time. There is no deadline. Other less serious crimes are subject to the statute of limitations. For instance, in Florida, a first degree felony that does not involve a death must be commended within four years of the incident. Other felonies must be commenced within three years of the incident date, and first degree misdemeanors must be commenced within two years of the commission of the crime.

The other prevailing issue in a case like this is whether the state can prove causation. In other words, in any murder case, the state has to prove that the victim actually died from the actions of the defendant. When there is a long period of time between the incident and the actual death, the criminal defense lawyer can always argue that the death was caused by something other than the defendant's conduct, which is why so much time elapsed in between the incident and the death. In order to prove the murder charge, the state has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim died as a direct result of the defendant's actions.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently issued a memorandum regarding the U.S. Attorney's Office charging of federal crimes and sentencing. The new memo basically supersedes the previous policy of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Aschcroft's policies on charging and sentencing sought more uniformity and less discretion. Holder's policy appears to recognize that each case and each defendant are different so more discretion and "individual assessment" are appropriate when considering the charges and sentencing enhacements.

The prior policy of the government was to charge the most serious crime(s) that can be considered consistent with the defendant's conduct and likely to obtain a conviction. The new policy appears to encourage prosecutors to take a closer look into the characteristics of the individual defendant and the case to see if a departure from the most serious charges and sentencing enhancements may be warranted.

When a person is arrested and charged with a crime of violence such as assault, battery aggravated assault, aggravated battery or a murder charge, the criminal defense lawyer for the defendant may attempt to introduce evidence of the alleged victim's prior history of violence. Is this evidence of the alleged victim's prior violence admissible at the trial? Yes, when the defendant is relying on a self defense theory in the case.

In Florida, when the defendant is charged with a violent crime, self defense is a common defense. If it can be established that the victim has a history of violence and the defendant was aware of this violent history, the criminal defense lawyer can bring out that evidence about the alleged victim at the trial for the jury to consider. The idea is that a self defense claim asserts that the defendant had a reason to believe that he/she was in danger based on the violent and/or threatening conduct of the alleged victim. Where the defendant knows that the alleged victim has a history violent conduct, that is relevant to establish that the defendant had reason to believe that the alleged victim was being, or was about to be, similarly violent in this case. Such evidence is relevant to show the state of mind of the defendant and to justify the defendant's reasonable fear of the alleged victim and the defendant's use of violence to defend him/herself from the alleged victim.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed a bill into law that allows cities and counties in Florida to have red light cameras as a way to enforce traffic laws. The cameras are set up at various intersections and take a picture of the vehicles and license tags when drivers run red lights at those intersections. Citations with the fines for those violations are then sent to the registered owner of the vehicle.

Prior to this bill, Florida neither allowed nor prohibited such cameras, but the DOT did not allow red light cameras at intersections on state roads. Fifty counties and cities already have these red light cameras in place. The new law provides that a ticket for running a red light caught on camera would cost $158.

It is not surprising that Florida is approving of this law now. Revenue from the red light camera citations is estimated to be as much as $100 million for Florida by 2014 at a time when all states are struggling to raise money.

Last year, we discussed some of the problems associated with these red light cameras. In the past, he Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has indicated a desire to put up red light cameras at certain busy intersections on Atlantic Boulevard, Southside Boulevard and Baymeadows Road, but they have not done so because the laws did not specifically allow them. Now that Governor Crist has signed the red light camera bill into law, Jacksonville may be seeing red light cameras at some of the busier intersections in the city.

In a recent drug case that occurred south of Jacksonville, Florida, police had information that heroin, marijuana and other illegal drugs were being kept and sold at a particular house. The police conducted surveillance of the house and saw one person exit the house and sell drugs to a customer. The police ultimately arrested that person for sale of heroin in the front yard of the house. Upon arrest, the police observed that the front door was open and people were in the house. The police went inside the house without a search warrant and found more heroin, marijuana and other drugs. The other occupants of the house were then also arrested for trafficking and possession of heroin and illegal drugs.

The criminal defense lawyer for the defendants filed a motion to suppress evidence of the seized drugs based on the fact that the police search of the house was unlawful. The general rule is that police cannot enter and search a person's house without consent or a valid search warrant. There are exceptions. For instance, when the police make an arrest, they are permitted to search the immediate area to make sure there are not any threats to the safety of the officers. This is called a protective sweep. However, the police cannot do this automatically. There must be evidence indicating there is may be some threat to the police officers. In this case, there was no specific evidence indicating that there was anything in the house that was a threat to the police officers who made the arrest outside of the house. There was no evidence that anyone in the house was armed or any threat to any police officer. As a result, the police did not have a right to enter and search the house for drugs without consent or a search warrant. Because the search was unlawful, all of the evidence of the heroin, marijuana and other drugs in the house was thrown out.

As criminal defense lawyers in Jacksonville, Florida, we handle many drug cases and quite often, the search that led to the seizure of the illegal drugs was questionable. One example that occurred in a few of the drug cases we have is the police search for drugs based on an anonymous tip.

It is not uncommon for someone to call the police and, without identifying him/herself, claim that some person is committing some crime. The caller may say that a person is selling drugs somewhere or has drugs in his/her home or may be burglarizing a particular location. When the caller does not identify him/herself, the tip is considered anonymous. That puts the information in a different category in terms of reliability as opposed to information that comes from a known source. When police get an anonymous tip that a particular person is committing a particular crime, the police cannot just get a search warrant or just go and search the house, vehicle, person, etc. For instance, let's say the police get a tip that Joe Smith who drives a while Chevrolet Malibu with blue stripes is growing marijuana at his pink and purple house at 123 Main Street. Police show up and see a pink and purple house with the exact car in the driveway. The identification information is confirmed, but unless the police observe something that corroborates the illegal activity, i.e. the marijuana growing, the police cannot search that house. When an anonymous tip is the basis for the investigation, the police need to see some evidence that corroborates the illegal activity, not just the identification information that anyone can see just by walking past the house.

Likewise, if the police received a tip that a white male wearing a orange shirt, green pants and a yellow hat is selling crack cocaine on the corner of Main and 1st streets, can the police stop and search him if they show up to Main and 1st and see that exact guy standing on the corner? No, not without some evidence corroborating the tip that he is actually selling drugs. The corroboration of the individual and his appearance is not sufficient to detain or search someone. If the police showed up, saw the guy and saw a couple of quick, hand to hand transactions, that would probably be enough for a brief detention to see if he was selling cocaine. However, when police get an anonymous tip of drug or other illegal activity, they need to verify the part of the tip relating to illegal activity before they can stop and search. If they just show up, confirm the identity of the suspect, house or vehicle and then search, any drugs or evidence obtained from the search may be thrown out of court.

Everyone should know that prostitution is a crime, not necessarily in certain parts of Nevada and other countries, but certainly in Jacksonville and the rest of Florida. However, as criminal defense lawyers in Jacksonville, another crime we see that often comes along with a prostitution charge is the crime of deriving proceeds from prostitution or even transporting a person for the purpose of prostitution.

Escort services are advertised all over the internet, and there is a fine line between legal behavior, such as dancing or moedling, and illegal prostitution. Police officers in Jacksonville go onto those websites trying to make arrests for prostitution and related crimes. They set up a meeting in a hotel room and record the encounter. As soon as they feel like they have evidence of prostitution, they will arrest the woman and anyone who came to the hotel room with her.

In Florida, the crime of prostitution is fairly straightforward. But as mentioned, a person can also be arrested for transporting someone for the purpose of prostitution. For this crime, the state would have to also prove that the person knew or should have known that prostitution would occur. For instance, if a person transports a woman to a party or a club or some other place without knowledge that she will be performing prostitution services there, that person would not be guilty of the charge of transporting a person for the purposes of prostitution. Absent evidence that any money changed hands between the alleged prostitute and the person transporting her, the evidence of this charge may be weak.

A person who is charged with any of these prostitution or prostitution-related charges faces a misdemeanor if it is the first time. However, for a third time or more, the charge can be a felony which can carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

As criminal defense lawyers in Jacksonville, Florida, we handle a lot of drug cases of all kinds. In many of them, the police ask someone to search their home, vehicle or person and find the illegal drugs. After the person is arrested and comes to discuss their case with us, we always inform him/her about the Constitutional right to refuse any police request to search anything belonging to them.

If a police officer asks you if he/she can search you, your vehicle, your bag, your home or anything else you own or possess, it is important to politely but clearly say no if you do not want him/her to conduct the search. Courts in Florida have allowed searches where the suspect did not affirmatively agree to the search but made some gesture indicating the search may be authorized. For example, in one case, police came to an apartment to search it for drugs, and the suspect answered the door. When the police officer asked to search the apartment for illegal drugs, the suspect did not consent, but he did move out of the way so the police could enter. The Florida court did find this search to be valid. In another case, police asked a suspect if they could search his person. The suspect did not agree but held up his hands and spread his feet. This search was also determined to be valid.

It is very important to understand that police in Florida do not necessarily have a right to search anyone or anything that you own or possess without a search warrant. If a police officer asks you for consent to search, you have a right to politely refuse. If you do not make your refusal clear, it could be interpreted as consent and the resulting search may be upheld in court.