Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog

Who Makes Federal Criminal Policy?

Published on: February 9, 2009 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

In the wake of the highly publicized scandal and alleged Ponzi scheme involving Bernie Madoff, U.S. lawmakers announced a proposed bill that would provide for an additional $110 million, 50 FBI agents, 100 SEC Enforcement Officials and 50 Assistant U.S. Attorneys to deal with federal securities fraud cases. The bill is called the Supplemental Anti-Fraud Enforcement Markets Act (“SAFE Markets Act”).

It is interesting how reactive our lawmakers and law enforcers are to major stories and so-called trends in criminal law. Not long ago, I wrote a post about how federal law enforcement authorities were prosecuting fewer white collar crimes and allocating their resources more towards immigration and terrorist-related issues. This was a reaction not only to 9/11 but also to the fact that illegal immigrants were coming over the border in droves to take advantage of the thriving U.S. economy and the numerous jobs made available by companies looking for cheap labor. At the time I wrote that post in May of 2008, prosecution of all federal white collar crimes was down 27% since President Bush took over in 2000.

More recently, the federal government’s focus shifted to mortgage fraud cases. The economy, and in particular, the housing markets, crashed, and several things happened. Immigration was still a concern, but those jobs that enticed illegal immigrants dried up to a large degree. Falling housing prices, untenable mortgages that were no longer supported by housing values and foreclosures captured the headlines. As a result, federal law enforcement officials increased their efforts to address mortgage fraud cases. As of late 2008, federal mortgage fraud cases more than doubled over the prior few years.

Doctor in Columbia County, Florida Arrested on Drug Charges

Published on: February 6, 2009 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

A doctor in Columbia County, Florida (which is about an hour west of Jacksonville, Florida) was arrested on charges of assisting in obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and unauthorized possession of prescription forms. In a prior post, we discussed how law enforcement authorities in Jacksonville and other areas in Florida are increasingly looking at alleged illegal drug crimes involving prescription drugs as more people, particular younger people, are abusing prescription drugs such as Oxycontin, Xanax, Percocet and many others. Police are focusing not just on the users but on doctors and other staff members at hospitals and doctors’ offices who have access to the prescription drugs and prescription drug forms.

According to the article, Dr. Yong Am Park, who is the subject of this criminal investigation, also had his medical license suspended by the Florida Department of Health. He will likely face a hearing down the road that may determine whether he will be able to continue practicing medicine. A doctor accused of crimes faces an additional sanction of losing his/her medical license and ability to make a living as he/she did before in addition to the criminal charges, particularly when those criminal charges directly relate to the doctor’s practice.

Florida State Football Player Arrested for DUI

Published on: February 4, 2009 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

Preston Parker, who plays wide receiver for Florida State, was arrested for DUI after local police allegedly found him asleep in the driver’s seat in the early morning hours. Parker’s vehicle was parked, but the key was in the ignition, the engine was running and his foot was on the brake pedal according to the article on ESPN.com. Parker submitted to the field sobriety exercises requested by the police officer, was arrested and then submitted to a test of his blood alcohol content (BAC).

We discuss this arrest to highlight one issue in DUI criminal case law of which some people are not aware. Someone may read this article and wonder how a person can be arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs (commonly referred to as DUI or DWI) when he was not even driving.

Unfortunately, this is not just a simple matter of Parker’s criminal defense lawyer pointing out that Parker was not driving when the police saw him so his case must be dismissed. In Florida, the crime of DUI can be committed when a person is driving a vehicle or in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs to the extent his/her normal faculties are impaired. While this issue will surely be contested by Parker’s criminal lawyer in his DUI case, under Florida law, a person who has the keys in the ignition with the engine running could be considered in actual physical control.

New Jersey Company Suffers Massive Breach of Credit Card Data

Published on: February 2, 2009 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

Heartland Payment Systems is a credit card processing company that handles 100 million credit card transactions per month. They recently went public with the fact that their network was breached and unauthorized access was gained to those credit card transactions. The company did not know, or did not disclose, which and how many credit card records were compromised, but they did say that the records accessed were sufficient to allow hackers to make duplicate credit cards.

In Florida, if a company that maintains certain identification or financial information about others suffers a material breach of its network or files, an important legal duty is triggered. Failure to comply with that legal duty could subject the company to costly penalties and severe damage to its reputation. When a company has reason to believe its network has been materially compromised, Florida law requires the company to conduct a reasonable investigation to determine the extent of the breach and whether harm has, or likely will, come to any of the individuals whose data are maintained. This investigation must be thoroughly documented. Depending on the results of that investigation, the company may be required to notify individuals of the data breach.

If you work for a company in Florida and have had your network breached, or have reason to believe your network has been breached, you can learn more about your legal rights here or contact us to learn more about what Florida law requires when a data breach occurs.

Highlights From the Government’s Annual Report on Illegal Drugs in the United States

Published on: January 30, 2009 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

The U.S. Justice Department issues a yearly report on the threat created by illegal drugs in the United States. This National Drug Threat Assessment is a lengthy report that discusses various drugs, where they come from, who is using them, who is selling them, how drug dealing is financed, the effects of illegal drugs on society and other issues on a macro scale. Some of the highlights of the report are as follows.

More than 35 million people used illegal drugs or abused prescription drugs in 2007.

More than 52% of all inmates in federal prisons are there due to drug offenses.

Criminal Prosecutions of Mortgage Fraud on the Increase

Published on: January 27, 2009 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

In Florida and across the country, prosecutors are bringing more criminal cases against people suspected of committing mortgage fraud. Mortgage fraud can be committed in a number of ways. Some examples include: buyers using fake identities to obtain loans and purchases houses, using fraudulent appraisals to inflate the price of a house so it can be resold at an artificially high price, paying bribes or kickbacks to get mortgages approved and forging mortgage documents (i.e. falsifying a buyer’s income to make it appear that he/she is able to afford a higher mortgage) to get a mortgage approved.

When mortgage fraud is committed, houses are sold to people who would not be able to afford them under normal circumstances, and housing prices become artificially inflated. The result is that ultimately mortgages are not paid and there are numerous foreclosures which can crash the housing market. A crashing housing market affects most homeowners, not just the ones who obtained their home by fraudulent means. Another result is that mortgages become much harder to get for everyone, which of course negatively affects the sale of homes and further drags down the housing market.

The United States Justice Department has formed more than 40 mortgage fraud task forces across the country, and federal mortgage fraud cases have more than doubled over the last few years, according to an article at www.Sfgate.com. In that time period, it is estimated that mortgage lenders have lost approximately $4 billion. Florida and Georgia are among the states with the highest foreclosure rates. Florida and two other states have half of the country’s mortgage fraud complaints over the last few years.

Jacksonville Law Firm Lasnetski Gihon Law Has Blog Post About Federal Criminal Liability for Companies Published in Jacksonville Business Journal

Published on: January 25, 2009 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

Last Month, the Jacksonville, Florida law firm of Lasnetski Gihon Law which handles state and federal criminal defense, personal injury, wrongful death and business litigation matters in Jacksonville and throughout Florida and Georgia prepared a blog post about an issue that has potentially crippling ramifications for companies but of which few companies are aware. The issue relates to the low standard that is applied when attributing vicarious criminal liability to companies based on the unlawful acts of their employees. The blog post can be read here. The Jacksonville Business Journal read the post and asked to publish a copy of it. A version of the post more suitable to that publication can be found here.

The post and the article were written as a reaction to our reading of a federal criminal case out of the Second Circuit called United States v. Ionia Management. We thought it was troubling how a company can be faced with severe financial penalties based on the conduct of any employee who commits a federal crime even if it is in derogation of company policies and procedures.

At the time of that blog post and that article, the Ionia Management case was still pending. Since that blog post, the Second Circuit has affirmed the ruling discussed in the post and the article. As a result, companies looking for a higher standard for vicarious criminal liability obtained no relief from the Ionia Management case.

Fewer Murders Are Being Solved in the U.S.

Published on: January 23, 2009 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

As forensic technology is becoming more advanced, police across the country are solving fewer homicides. The FBI maintains records on murder clearances rates which refer to the percentages of murders that are solved in any given year. When murder clearance rates were first documented in the early 1960’s, about 90% of murders were solved. According to the latest FBI figures, just over 60% of murders were solved in 2007. Over that time period, the annual number of murders reported in the U.S. have increased from 4,566 to 14,811.

The decrease in the murder clearance rates can be attributed to a number of factors. In the past, more murders were committed by people who knew or had some connection with the victim. With the increase of gang and drug related murders, murders have increasingly been committed by people who had no or little connection to the victim making it more difficult to solve. When the murderer and the victim are related or otherwise acquainted, it is often easier for police to establish a suspect by analyzing motive and opportunity. Another factor is that witnesses have become less likely to give statements to police and testify in court. In some communities, people are becoming very proactive in letting residents know that if they talk to the police about a crime, there would be serious repercussions. Whatever CSI techniques may be available, witness testimony is still a critical part of most criminal investigations.

St. Augustine Woman Wanted by Police for Allegedly Dumping Hazardous Waste From Flagler Hospital

Published on: January 20, 2009 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

A St. Augustine, Florida woman (Pamela Niland) allegedly dumped hazardous waste taken from Flagler Hospital, including vials of blood and drugs and old needles, into a dumpster belonging to a St. Johns County construction company, according to an article at Firstcoastnews.com. As most people know, hospitals and doctors’ offices have procedures and waste containers for properly and safely disposing of such hazardous materials. According to the article, the crime was caught on a surveillance camera and also observed by a witness. Pamela Niland had not been arrested as of the time the article was written.

This article reminded me of a post I wrote last month about companies that can be criminally liable for the actions of their employees. That post was published in the Jacksonville Business Journal, and it discussed how a company can be held criminally liable for the acts of an employee if the employee commits an act in violation of federal law while acting in the course and scope of his/her employment and acting to benefit the company. As the federal law currently stands, in such a case, it is not a defense for the company to show that the employee was a low-level employee or that the company undertook efforts to prevent such unlawful acts. I am not suggesting that Flagler Hospital would be criminally liable in this reported case- there is no indication that the federal authorities are involved, and it is not clear if Pamela Niland was an employee of Flagler Hospital at the time this act was allegedly committed. However, this can be the type of unlawful act committed by an employee that unexpectedly implicates an employer and subjects the employer to severe financial penalties for something over which they may have had little or no control.

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Arrest Three People on Drug Trafficking Charges

Published on: January 18, 2009 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) announced that three people were arrested (Alex Campbell, Frederick Campbell and Temario Wiley) on drug trafficking charges after police found a large amount of marijuana that had been delivered by UPS to a house on Praver Drive in Jacksonville. The Jacksonville police also seized $500,000 and guns incident to the arrests. According to the article at News4Jax.com, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were also involved in the drug trafficking investigation.

It is not uncommon for an investigation in Jacksonville, Florida or anywhere else for that matter to begin and end this way. Police will often receive a tip of drug related activity from a buyer of illegal drugs or someone involved with or associated with the suspects who has been arrested and then provides information about others to avoid, or reduce his/her exposure to, jail or prison. This way, the police will work their way up the chain to try and arrest those people who are more prominent in selling drugs or bringing them into the city. It is also not uncommon for people to send drugs to each other via UPS, Federal Express, the United States Postal Service and other commercial delivery companies. However, there are employees of those entities who are trained to detect packages containing drugs and when they find such a package, they will alert the police who will bring a drug dog and/or seek a search warrant for the package. If the police decide to conduct a controlled delivery of the package to the intended residence, legal questions arise as to whether the drugs and/or knowledge of the drugs can be attributed to the person who accepts the package and anyone living in or present in the home when the package is delivered.

If you have been investigated or arrested on drug trafficking or other drug charges, contact a law firm whose attorneys understand the many legal issues that are present in drug cases so your rights can be protected.