Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog

Police arrested eleven people alleging they were involved in mortgage fraud in various counties in North and Central Florida, including Flagler and Volusia Counties. The police are alleging that the individuals devised a scheme that involved straw buyers, realtors, appraisers and mortgage brokers. The group is alleged to have artificially inflated prices of homes with false appraisals and increased the amount of the loan by requesting additional funds for renovations that were never intended or executed. The excess money would be paid to the straw buyers and split among the people involved in the scheme. According to police, the buyers in these schemes never intend to live in or renovate the houses and the property is normally foreclosed upon not long after the closing. This particular mortgage fraud scheme reportedly involved 23 homes and $9 million.

Mortgage fraud cases have increased dramatically over the last few years after the housing crisis hit. During the housing bubble, banks were loaning large sums of money to anyone and everyone who filled out a mortgage application. Once housing values quit going up, banks realized they had a lot of bad loans on their books, and the mortgage crisis began to snowball. This is the exact kind of environment that prompts the government to go into reactive mode and initiate investigations into possible mortgage fraud. When everyone was making money (the banks were closing loans and the builders were selling houses), everyone was was happy, and mortgage fraud did not seem to be a problem. When everyone started losing money (loans were not getting paid and foreclosures skyrocketed), no one was happy, and the mortgage fraud investigations began in force. In the current environment, the various law enforcement agencies are focusing on any sort of irregularities in the mortgage loan process.

In Florida, in a lewd or lascivious molestation or battery case, or a sexual battery case, the credibility of the victim's testimony is often the most critical factor in the case. In many of these cases, the victims are children who may be less predictable in the things they say and may not appreciate the importance of telling the complete truth in a legal proceeding. In any case, but particularly in lewd or lascivious molestation or battery cases, the criminal defense lawyer's job is to question the victim to determine the accuracy of the victim's statement incriminating the defendant.

However, the criminal defense lawyer does not have free reign to ask the victim any questions and bring out bad things the victim may have done in the past. One area that would seem to be critical to determine the credibility of the victim would be prior, similar false accusations. For instance, if the victim is saying the defendant in the present case sexually assaulted her, should the criminal defense attorney have the right to inform the jury that the victim made a similar accusation of sexual assault against the defendant's brother two years earlier that proved to be false? It would seem like this would be important information for a jury to know about the victim. However, a recent Florida Supreme Court case said that such information would likely be inadmissible at a trial. The general rule is that the criminal defense lawyer may not bring out evidence about the victim's prior bad acts, including similar but false accusations about another person.

The criminal defense lawyer can attack the credibility of the victim, but he/she is limited in his/her methods. The criminal defense attorney can bring out the fact that the victim has a prior conviction(s) for a felony or a misdemeanor crime that involved dishonesty. For instance, if a person made a similar, false accusation of a sexual assault about someone else and was arrested and convicted for false report of a crime, the criminal defense lawyer would be able to inform the jury that the victim has a prior conviction. However, that is rare when dealing with young victims. The criminal defense lawyer also has the right to bring out any facts that tend to show the victim's testimony is biased or the victim has a motive to be untruthful. Therefore, if the victim has multiple false accusations against other people or one prior, false accusation against this defendant, that evidence should be admissible at the trial to show the victim is biased towards the defendant or has a motive for lying in this context.

We have clearly seen a shift in focus towards Medicaid fraud and other healthcare fraud cases by the state and federal law enforcement agencies over the last year or so. As news stories focus on the tremendous debts facing our states and country and the huge amounts of money involved in Medicaid fraud and healthcare fraud, the various law enforcement agencies follow suit with their investigations and prosecutions of healthcare fraud cases.

A recent press release from Eric Holder, the United States Attorney General, confirmed the government's commitment towards making more cases against people suspected of Medicaid fraud and healthcare fraud. Mr. Holder noted that the government has collected more than $2.5 billion under the False Claims Act relating to health care fraud over the past fiscal year, which was a 50% increase over the prior year and the largest figure for any year. The government also initiated more than 2,000 criminal and civil healthcare fraud investigations and charged a record number of people with Medicaid fraud and healthcare fraud related crimes.

This press release confirms the trend we have seen for some time. The government, on a local, state and federal level, is really focusing on all aspects of healthcare fraud and making a record number of arrests. These arrests have involved anyone from the lower level employees to doctors, pharmacists and owners of the various medical facilities. If you have been contacted by anyone relating to a Medicaid fraud or healthcare fraud investigation and would like to speak with an attorney familiar with these matters, feel free to contact us for a free consultation.

Most people even marginally familiar with criminal law and evidentiary issues understand that there is a special relationship and privilege between a lawyer and his/her client and that a defendant's lawyer would never be able to testify against the client in a criminal trial. However, that seemingly obvious conclusion may not always be so clear. It is fundamental that the prosecutor is not allowed to have a defendant's lawyer testify against the client in a criminal case. However, whether the lawyer is actually that defendant's lawyer leaves room for interpretation.

This ambiguity most often comes up in a case where a company and an employee(s) of the company are being investigated. A question may arise as to whether the defense lawyer represents the company or the employee. For the employee, it may be difficult to tell. The employee may believe the lawyer is his/her lawyer, but that lawyer may actually represent the company instead. In many cases, their company's and the employee's interests are the same making it difficult to distinguish the actual client. If that is the case, the communications between the employee and the company lawyer may not be privileged and confidential and may be accessible by the prosecutor.

In a pending criminal case out of Philadelphia, a CEO of a company was convicted of obstruction of justice and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. During the trial, the prosecutor was allowed to call the CEO's former lawyer to testify as to certain communications between the two that the CEO thought were privileged and confidential at the time. According to the CEO, he felt that he engaged the defense lawyer to be his individual lawyer, in which case all communications between the two should be privileged and confidential. However, the government alleged that the lawyer represented the company and was not the CEO's individual lawyer in which case the lawyer-client privilege should not apply. The defense countered that the CEO reasonably believed that the lawyer was his individual attorney and the client's/defendant's belief controls whether the attorney-client privilege is in effect.

This case and the decision to allow the lawyer to testify against the defendant is currently under appeal. For company executives and other employees who are being investigated or have been charged with a crime, this issue has serious implications in circumstances where there is an attorney involved but it is not perfectly clear whether the attorney represents the company or the person individually.

Law enforcement officials in Jacksonville, Florida raided the home of a 91 year old woman searching for marijuana plants, according to an article on News4Jax.com. Apparently, they found 19 marijuana plants in the home near Dupont Middle School in the San Jose area. It was not clear why nineteen marijuana plants caused enough concern to have Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) agents bust into the home of a 91 year old woman with health problems. In any case, the elderly woman was not arrested, but her two caretakers were.

One issue that arises in a situation like this is who is criminally liable for illegal activity in a residence. When a fairly small amount of drugs or a gun is found in a house, one cannot assume that everyone who lives in the home, or happens to be in the home at the time, has some connection to the drugs or gun. To prove a possession charge, the police and the state have to prove a connection between the particular suspect and the illegal activity. Marijuana growing operations may be different since they are not as easily concealed as a gun or bag of drugs. It depends on the size of the marijuana grow operation and how many plants are involved. However, the police and the state still have to prove that a suspect knew about the marijuana plants and had some relationship with the marijuana growing operation or the marijuana plants. In this case, even though the elderly woman owned the house, there appears to be some evidence that she did not know about the plants or what kind of plants they were. In that case, she could not be charged with possession or cultivation of marijuana.

Jacksonville, Florida police arrested five people who they suspect were involved in the theft of cargo from twenty to twenty-five semi trucks in cities from Jacksonville to Tampa, according to an article on News4Jax.com. The five suspects were allegedly stealing the cargo and shipping the materials down to Miami. According to Jacksonville police, the shipments ranged in value from $23,000 worth of rice to $400,000 worth of TV's.

The suspects in a case like this can be charged with a number of different crimes depending on the circumstances of the thefts. They are likely to face burglary and grand theft charges, at a minimum. Burglary of an unoccupied vehicle without any violence towards another person is a third degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Grand theft is more or less serious depending on the value of the items stolen. When the value of the property stolen is $300 or more, the crime becomes a felony. However, there is a special part of the theft crime statute dealing with theft of the cargo of a semi truck. Where a person steals cargo of significant value from a semi truck, as alleged in this case, it is likely to be a first degree felony punishable by up to thirty years in prison.

Methamphetamine labs, typically houses, apartments or trailers where people use various chemicals and equipment to make methamphetamine, are on the increase in St. Johns County, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office. In the article, the St. Johns County sergeant discusses three arrests related to three separate St. Johns County meth labs in one week and one call where a house burned down due to a meth lab in St. Johns County several months ago. In order to deal with the problem, the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office is training more officers for methamphetamine lab detection and investigation. Other counties in Northeast Florida are also experiencing a lot of methamphetamine related cases including Duval County, Clay County and Flagler County.

Like cocaine, marijuana and illegal pill cases, one of the primary ways the police learn of meth labs and meth dealers is by talking to the people who know the people involved. These discussions often occur after someone gets arrested and "flips" on someone else to try and get a better deal with the state. However, because methamphetamine is often made on-site, meth labs offer another method for police to learn of their existence. Meth labs typically create strong and distinctive chemical fumes that can be smelled by neighbors or others nearby who often alert police to the suspected meth lab. A complaint to police of a potential meth lab based on the smell is often the first step in a meth lab investigation.

Pain clinics in Florida have become big business over the last few years. Billboards and other advertisements for pain clinics have popped up all over Florida. However, along with their recent popularity, scrutiny by law enforcement has followed. Local, state and federal police and law enforcement agencies have spent a lot of time investigating pain clinics and arresting anyone and everyone they feel is involved in pain clinics that are not following the laws in Florida. Primarily, they are focusing on the pain clinics where they allege the facility is just giving numerous pain pills to people in assembly line fashion without conducting the proper examinations and diagnosis procedures. Police allege these patients are then abusing the pain pills and/or selling them on the street for a significant profit.

We have been involved with individuals, and represented clients, from various pain clinics in Florida ranging from the regular employees to doctors conducting examinations to the owners of the pain clinics. When law enforcement goes after a pain clinic, they typically arrest people at all levels of affiliation with the pain clinic.

There are, of course, legitimate pain clinics that provide a valuable and necessary service to people in need of treatment and pain medication who may not be fortunate enough to have good health insurance policies. However, as the police focus more and more on pain clinics of all types, some of the good pain clinics and many of the innocent people involved with them may get pulled into a police investigation and face criminal prosecution.

Additionally, the Florida legislature has taken steps to regulate pain clinics. This is not an exhaustive list, but some of the rules governing pain clinics are as follows. Privately owned pain clinics must register with the Florida Department of Health. The pain clinic must designate a fully licensed physician(s) who practices at each pain clinic facility who is responsible for that particular facility. The pain clinics must notify the Department of Health of any changes with the facility including location, name, ownership and responsible physician. A registration number is assigned for each pain clinic. Each pain clinic location must be registered.

In the past, a pain clinic could be owned by just about anyone. However, the laws have changed, and now a licensed physician(s) must own the pain clinic.

Reasons the Department of Health will deny or revoke a pain clinic's license include: if the physician owner or physician working at the pain clinic loses his/her DEA number or license to prescribe a controlled substance or if the physician owner or physician who works at the clinic gets convicted or pleads guilty or no contest to a felony charge involving the receipt of illegal drugs.

I you have any questions about owning or operating a pain clinic or a criminal investigation or arrest relating to a pain clinic, feel free to contact us for a free consultation.

Jacksonville, Florida ranks fifth in the United States for speed traps, according to a report from the National Motorists Association as reported in an article on Newsjax.com. How often a city's or county's police department gives tickets is often related to the city's or county's financial situation. As everyone knows, Jacksonville is struggling like many other places.

In any case, getting a traffic ticket can have several serious ramifications. Normally, a traffic ticket results in a low three figure fine and some points on a person's driving record. That, in and of itself, is not very serious. However, if a person accumulates multiple tickets over a period of time, the DMV can suspend that person's driver's license. Additionally, the DMV will suspend a person's driver's license if the traffic fine is not paid. If a person gets caught driving with a suspended license, he/she can be arrested for a crime and face jail time. If a person gets convicted three times for driving with a suspended license, in addition to jail time, that person faces a five year license revocation. So, one traffic ticket is not a serious matter. However, multiple traffic tickets can result in much more serious problems.

Individual traffic stops can also lead to very serious trouble. Many drug possession, gun possession and DUI cases result from a seemingly harmless traffic stop. The police officer may initially intend to write a speeding ticket but then suspect the driver is impaired and initiate a DUI investigation. A police officer may suspect a vehicle occupant has illegal drugs or a concealed firearm in the vehicle and search the vehicle either by consent of the driver or another method. Many routine traffic stops result in serious criminal arrests after the police officer conducts an investigation and finds something illegal in the vehicle. It is important for anyone to understand that he/she has a Constitutional right to refuse any time a police officer asks for consent to search a vehicle or anything else belonging to that person.

Foxnews.com recently published an article about a raid of a suspected "pill mill" where the reporter accompanied the police on the raid. In Jacksonville and other cities in Florida, local, state and federal law enforcement officials have been targeting pain clinics and doctors whom they suspect are providing pain medicine to people without performing the proper professional practices. We have seen many examples of police, DEA and FBI going after various clinics and making a multitude of arrests. They will often send undercover agents into these places who try to get a large number of pills without the proper examination and medical diagnosis. The government alleges that certain pain clinics and doctors are distributing these pain pills without spending the appropriate quality and quantity of time with the patients to properly examine and diagnose them to determine if they actually need the medicine. The government then says that the patients turn around and abuse the pain pills and/or sell them at a significant premium.

There are many pending cases involving pain clinics in Florida. These cases often target the employees working at the pain clinics, the doctors associated with the pain clinics and the owners profiting from them, even where the owners may have little contact with the actual facility. These prosecutions have significant ramifications. Serious felony charges are being brought that potentially result in serious time in prison. Doctors are losing their authority to prescribe medicine and their medical licenses.

There are, of course, many doctors, employees and executives who are running perfectly legitimate operations to treat people who are in need of pain management. Like many cases that involve relatively new businesses, new issues and an increased focus by law enforcement, it is not always clear who is breaking the law and who is providing an important medical service to people in need. When law enforcement casts the net wide to address what they see as an emerging problem, many times people in the latter category get caught up with those who actually should be charged with a crime and prosecuted.

Twenty-one people were charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana in Brunswick, Georgia federal court, according to an article on News4Jax.com. A few of them were also indicted on related weapons charges. The indictments were the result of a lengthy investigation by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), the Glyn Brunswick Narcotics Enforcement team and the FBI. According to the article, each of the twenty-one defendants faces a minimum 10 year prison sentence and up to life in prison along with significant fines and forfeiture of their property.

Drug cases such as these are not uncommon in federal court. Many drug conspiracy cases involve multiple defendants because of the way the crime is charged. We see conspiracy charged in federal court quite often in drug cases because it can be an easier charge to prove. In order to prove conspiracy to distribute or manufacture illegal drugs, the federal prosecutors do not have to prove that each defendant actually sold the drugs, was involved in manufacturing the drugs (in methamphetamine cases) or actually grew the drugs (in marijuana cases). The federal government merely has to prove that the particular defendant knowingly and intentionally agreed or worked with at least one other defendant to distribute, manufacture or grow the drugs. Depending on the case, this can be a lot easier to prove than proving actual drug selling, drug manufacturing or drug growing on the part of each person charged. A conspiracy to commit a federal drug crime can involve significantly more conduct than just selling, manufacturing or growing, and the conspiracy charge can cover a lot of different people that had some known relationship to the operation, even when that person's relationship to the operation is minor.

While the evidence that is needed to prove a conspiracy can be less than what is required to prove an actual hands-on drug charge, the penalties are often the same. As the article indicates, the conspiracy charge can come with severe penalties just like drug selling, manufacturing and growing charges. As a result, a person who was only tangentially involved (i.e. just handled the money or provided some of the materials used to set up the operation) can face a 10 year minimum prison sentence just like the person who actually sold the drugs.

If you have questions about a drug case, whether it is a federal felony drug conspiracy charge or a state drug charge, the law office of Shorstein & Lasnetski, LLC in Jacksonville, Florida handles all criminal cases in Florida and Georgia. Feel free to contact us for a free consultation.