Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog

There are certain crimes in Florida that require the defendant to register as a sex offender for the rest of his/her life after a conviction. This sex offender status confers fairly rigid requirements on a person, and failure to comply can lead to an additional serious felony criminal charge in Florida. For instance, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will likely send an annual letter to a person's registered address asking the person to verify that he/she still resides there. If the letter is not answered in time, the police may come looking for that person. If the police determine that the person has changed his/her address, permanently or temporarily, without notifying the proper authorities, that person will likely face a new third degree felony charge.

Under the Florida career sex offender law, a person must register with the Department of Corrections within two days of establishing a permanent or temporary residence. The definition of a permanent residence might sound a lot like a temporary residence. A permanent residence is a place where the person "abides, lodges or resides" for 14 or more consecutive days. A temporary residence will include any trip of four days or more or just about any series of trips to the same location. A temporary residence is defined under the Florida criminal laws as a place where the person "abides, lodges or resides" for 14 days in the aggregate in any calendar year that is not his/her permanent residence or a place where the person "routinely abides, lodges or resides" for a period of 4 or more consecutive days or nonconsecutive days in any month which is not his/her permanent address. For example, if a person likes to visit a friend at the same location one weekend each month, that would qualify as a temporary residence and need to be reported.

Any time the person changes or establishes a permanent or temporary residence under the Florida law definitions above, he/she needs to report that information to a Florida driver's license office within two business days.

The residency definitions are very strict in terms of reporting. If a person goes on vacation for four days, technically, he/she has to report that address as a temporary residence. Basically, any time a person visits the same location for four consecutive days or spends four or more separate days at a particular location in a month, the safe thing to do is to follow the reporting requirements in order to avoid the additional felony charge.

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 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.

There have been more arrests and criminal charges for child pornography in the Jacksonville area recently, as noted by an article on News4Jax.com. Child pornography, whether a person receives it, creates it, distributes it or just views it on a computer at home, is a very serious crime that carries very stiff penalties. And there have been an increase in child pornography related arrests throughout Florida by both federal, state and local law enforcement officials.

As the article suggests, there are several reasons why we have seen more arrests for child pornography. First, state, local and federal law enforcement officials are initiating more investigations into the crime. Some crimes do not resonate with the public as much as others. For instance, not everyone can get behind spending a lot of money and resources to fight drug crimes. However, the public will always support officials who make child pornography a priority. Additionally, the technology is better today than it was in the past. This works both ways. People have more access to child pornography with computers and the internet. However, law enforcement officials have better technology to track and catch people who are viewing and sharing illegal pictures and videos.

Regardless of the reasons for the increase, when the police, FBI or other law enforcement agency make an arrest for child pornography, it is practically certain that the case will be treated very seriously by the prosecutors.

In a recent case near Jacksonville, Florida a defendant was charged with the sex crimes of lewd or lascivious exhibition and transmitting an image harmful to minors by an electronic device. The criminal charges stemmed from an undercover operation during which a police officer posed as a thirteen year old over the internet. According to the police, the defendant began communicating with the police officer in a sexually inappropriate manner. The defendant and the police officer were chatting on Yahoo Instant Messenger. At some point, the defendant set up a web cam and exposed his penis several times. The defendant was ultimately arrested and charged with the two sex crimes.

At trial, the defendant argued that what he wrote on Yahoo Instant Messenger and what he showed on his web cam were protected by the First Amendment right to free speech because it was done through a public website. However, the court found that communications over the internet directed to children are not protected by the First Amendment and the state has a compelling interest to protect children from harmful materials on the internet.

One question that comes up regarding the sex crime of lewd or lascivious exhibition is what the words "lewd" and "lascivious" mean. Unfortunately, these words are not defined in the criminal statute. So, there is no easy answer as to what conduct is criminalized under this law. Whether conduct is lewd or lascivious is decided first by the police and the prosecutor who decide to make an arrest and bring criminal charges, but ultimately by a judge or jury. The statute gives an example of lewd or lascivious conduct as follows: exposing one's genitals in a lewd or lascivious way. Of course, when the definition includes the words we are trying to define, that definition is not very helpful.

The article linked here discusses the various laws addressing sex crimes and dealing with sex offenders and the people who are required to register as a sex offender. The article makes several good points. One point is that the laws punishing "sex offenders" and the laws labeling someone a "sex offender" triggering the sex offender registration requirement are too broad. As a result, given the limited resources of the police and prosecutors, it makes it more difficult for them to monitor and focus on the truly dangerous sex offenders. For instance, the article notes that in some states, sex offenders include a woman who had oral sex with another guy decades ago when she was 17 and the boy was a couple of weeks shy of his 16th birthday, and they were in the same high school class. In other states, people were considered sex offenders for soliciting prostitutes, urinating in public and having consensual sex with a teenagers when they were teenagers themselves. As the article mentions, part of the problem is that when a sex offender law is proposed, even when it is over-reaching and includes people doing things that are far less serious than what one would normally consider a sex offense, it is always unpopular for politicians to vote against such laws. It is always popular with constituents to be tough on sex crimes, and no politician wants to risk being called soft on child molesters, even if he/she merely thinks a proposed law is too harsh on a 17 year old who has consensual sex with 15 year old. However, the best approach to sex crimes and sex offenders is to be tough but smart. Categorizing people as sex offenders who clearly do not deserve the label does not do anyone any good.

Florida has strict laws addressing what sexual conduct between people is considered a crime, some of which address sexual conduct between young people pretty close in age. Florida also has strict laws about when, where and how a person is required to register a sex offender, whether he/she is a resident of Florida or just a visitor. If you have questions about the laws dealing with sexual battery, registering as a sex offender and other sex crimes, feel free to contact us for a free consultation.

After a criminal conviction for certain sex crimes in Florida, the defendant will be forced to register with the local police department initially, and then periodically thereafter, as a sex offender. The registration process involves providing the police with identification and contact information about the person so the police know where he/she can be found at all times. If a person fails to register the first time, or fails to re-register thereafter, he/she may be charged with the crime of failing to register as a sex offender, which is a felony crime in Florida.

However, it is not clear from reading the failure to register as a sex offender statute whether the State has to prove that the defendant knew he/she was obligated to register. In other words, at trial, can the State simply present evidence that the defendant was a sex offender required to register and did not, or does the defendant's state of mind come into play? In some cases, the defendant can argue that he/she did not know he/she had to register or that he/she thought he/she did register. In most cases, when a defendant pleads guilty or no contest to a sex offense that requires registration, he/she will be forced to read and sign paperwork that explains the registration requirement. The probation officer will also explain it to him/her. However, if that is not done, the defendant can argue that he/she did not know about the registration requirement. Likewise, we read of one case where the defendant's probation officer came to see the defendant around the time he was required to re-register. Based on the comments of the probation officer during that visit, the defendant thought his re-registration requirement for that year was satisfied, and he did not go to the registration office. He was charged with failing to register as a sex offender and was able to use the evidence of the visit from his probation officer and those discussions as a defense to the charge based on his impression that his registration requirement was satisfied.

We believe that the prosecution of a failure to register as a sex offender case is not as simple as proving that the defendant was required to register and failed to do so. Where those elements are proven but there is an argument that the defendant did not know either that he/she had to register or that he/she did not register, there is a valid defense to the crime.

Law enforcement officials have been arresting more and more people for sexual solicitation of minors, according to an article on News4Jax.com. The article attributed the increase in arrests for sex crimes involving minors on greater enforcement efforts and better technology as opposed to more offenders. Arrests for sexually soliciting a minor over the Internet increased by five times when an undercover officer was posing as the minor, while arrests for the same crime increased by 21% when actual minors were solicited.

In Florida, the Attorney General's office has increased efforts to investigate cases involving the sexual solicitation of minors and considers the protection of children from sexual solicitations from adults over the Internet to be the office's top priority. According to the Attorney General's website, Florida ranks fourth in the country in volume of child pornography over the Internet. As a result, the Florida Attorney General's Office has established the Child Predator Cybercrime Unit to protect children and investigate cases involving child pornography and sexual solicitation and exploitation of minors in Florida. Florida also enacted the Cybercrimes Against Children Act in 2007 which increased criminal penalties for conduct such as possession of child pornography and soliciting children over the Internet.

In 2007, a large Cybercrime unit headquarters was opened in Jacksonville, Florida.