Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog

Police in Florida Can Run Your Name and Date of Birth Without Suspicion of Criminal Activity

Published on: November 21, 2011 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

In Florida, there are multiple levels of police encounters, and with each one, there may be certain legal requirements on the part of the police officer to justify the police officer’s actions. The first level encounter is a brief, consensual encounter where a police officer is not required to have any evidence that the suspect is involved in criminal activity. In these encounters, because the police officer does not have any evidence of criminal activity and is just casually requesting information, the suspect is free to refuse the police officer’s requests and leave the scene. However, if the encounter becomes more serious and a reasonable person would not believe he/she was free to ignore the police officer and leave, it becomes more than a casual, consensual encounter.

In a second level encounter, the police can briefly detain a suspect to see if the suspect is involved in any criminal activity and/or possibly armed and a threat to the officer’s safety. As stated, this encounter must be quick and cannot be too intrusive. In order to justify such an encounter, the police officer must know of specific facts giving the officer reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is occurring or the person is armed and dangerous. If that reasonable suspicion is not quickly confirmed, the encounter must end.

The third level encounter involves a long, intrusive detention by the police officer or an outright arrest. In order to justify this kind of detention, the police officer must have probable cause to believe the suspect was involved in criminal activity or an actual arrest warrant.

Quantity of Drugs May Not Be Enough To Prove Intent To Sell in Florida

Published on: November 18, 2011 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

There are a few different kinds of drug crimes in Florida. Simple possession is typically the least serious drug crime, and trafficking is the most serious. In between the two, possession with intent to sell illegal drugs is still a very serious felony crime. The crime is often associated with the suspect being within a certain distance of a public park or school. For the most part, prosecutors and judges look for more serious sentences when they believe a defendant was selling, or intending to sell, an illegal drug rather than just using it.

What evidence is required to prove possession with intent to sell an illegal drug in Florida? Sometimes, the police will try to use the quantity of the drug found on the suspect as the primary, or only, evidence that the defendant intended to sell the drug. This may be allowed under Florida law if the amount of the drugs was so significant, no reasonable person would believe it was for personal use. For instance, if the police find a person with a couple of bricks of crack cocaine, that would probably be sufficient for a possession with intent to sell crack cocaine charge. However, when the quantity does not obviously indicate the drugs are for sale rather than personal use, the state must present other evidence that the drugs were for sale.

In a recent case south of Jacksonville, Florida, the police responded to a park where people were allegedly selling crack cocaine. Ultimately, they arrested the defendant who was found carrying a bag with about 50 crack rocks inside. The defendant was arrested for possession of crack cocaine with intent to sell within 1,000 feet of a public park.

Self Defense is Not Always a Valid Defense to Battery in Florida

Published on: November 15, 2011 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

In Florida a battery is normally committed when a person forcefully touches another in an unauthorized manner. A first time battery will likely be charged as a misdemeanor crime. The charge becomes domestic battery if the victim is a relative or shares another specified relationship with the suspect. A battery can be a felony if a weapon is used or the battery results in sufficiently serious injuries to the victim.

However, no matter the type of battery, domestic or otherwise, felony or misdemeanor, the defendant may have a self defense argument. A valid self defense claim is a complete defense to a battery charge and, if successful, would result in a verdict of not guilty in a criminal trial.

A person in Florida has a right to use force against another if he/she reasonably believes it is necessary to protect him/herself or another from that person’s imminent use of force. In other words, if you think someone is about to use force against your or another victim, you can use force against that person if it is reasonably necessary to prevent that force from occurring.

FBI Taking More Aggressive Approach to View Personal Emails and Internet Usage

Published on: November 12, 2011 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

The FBI is using more aggressive means to get personal emails and information about internet usage. In the past, the FBI was permitted to use administrative subpoenas that were not initially presented to a judge for review. These administrative subpoenas, or national security letters, were sent to internet service providers at the discretion of the FBI asking internet service providers to disclose information about personal emails and what websites the targets of the subpoenas had visited. Upon receiving the national security letters, the internet providers were obligated to refrain from alerting its customers that the FBI was requesting the information and the internet service provider was providing the information.

More recently, perhaps due to backlash from the secret disclosure of this private information, the internet service providers were limiting the information they would provide to the FBI in response to these national security letters. As a result, the FBI has shifted its strategy and asked the courts for orders, called business records requests, that require the internet service providers to release the extensive private information previously obtained by the national security letters. According to a recent article, in the first few months of this year, more than 80% of the business record requests made by the FBI were for internet records, and the FBI made more than four times as many business record requests in 2010 compared to the prior year.

Florida State Database Set Up To Avoid Doctor Shopping for Prescription Pills

Published on: November 9, 2011 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

Over the last several years, we have seen a significant increase in the number of arrests of people in Florida for possession, sale and trafficking involving prescription narcotics like Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Roxycontin and Oxycontin. These drug crimes involving prescription pills have increased at a much greater rate than the more traditional drug crimes involving marijuana, cocaine, heroin and crack.

The prescription pill criminal cases come in many forms. One area that has been more difficult for the police to detect is referred to as doctor shopping. A common approach by people looking for prescription painkillers like Hydrocodone and Oxycodone is to set up multiple appointments with different doctors, complain of pain and get prescriptions for pain pills from each doctor. Of course, the patient does not tell each doctor that he is seeing the other ones for the same purpose of getting the pain pill prescriptions. The patient then gets the prescriptions from the various doctors, fills them at different drug stores and obtains a large quantity of pills to use and/or re-sell. This was difficult for the doctors, pharmacists and the police to detect because there was no way for one doctor to know if a patient has seen a similar doctor recently and received a similar prescription unless the patient disclosed that information.

As a result, Florida made it illegal to go to multiple doctors within a 30 day period and get similar pain pill prescriptions without telling the doctors of the patient’s visit(s) to the other doctor(s). This is called doctor shopping, and it has become a felony crime in Florida. However, this relatively new law did not make it any easier for police or doctors to catch people doctor shopping. The police would only solve such a crime if they found the various prescriptions or pill bottles with the different doctors’ names and dates or otherwise came across this information, which was unlikely.

Three “Bath Salts” Banned by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)

Published on: November 6, 2011 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

Normally in Florida, when the government plans to make something illegal, whether it is certain conduct by a person or possession of some new drug the government is afraid of, the Florida legislature will come up with a new criminal law. Congress does the same thing on the federal level. However, the DEA has authority to ban certain substances on a more immediate and temporary basis if the DEA determines the substance is dangerous. The DEA has recently acted to ban certain “bath salts”, more particularly known as mephedrone, methylone and 3,4 methyleneoxypyrovalerone. These “bath salts” have become more popular in Florida over the last couple of years. They are known by the more common names of Vanilla Sky, Ivory Wave and Bliss.

The DEA ban classifies the “bath salts” as Schedule I controlled substances and makes it illegal to possess or sell these “bath salts” for at least a year. During the time of the temporary ban, the DEA is supposed to study the substances to determine if they are dangerous and a permanent ban is appropriate. The DEA is concerned that these “bath salts” may cause extreme paranoia and violent episodes among other side effects. While the DEA does have authority to ban potentially dangerous drugs more quickly than Congress and state legislatures, the problem the DEA has is they must specifically identify which substances are being banned. However, the people making these drugs can quickly manufacture new, derivative substances not covered by the ban and essentially outrun the DEA’s efforts.

What Can Police in Florida Do When A Suspect Runs From Police?

Published on: November 3, 2011 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

As criminal defense lawyers in Jacksonville and the North Florida area, a very common scenario that we see a lot occurs when police are patrolling what they call high crime areas and a suspect runs when he/she sees police in the area. A common question results from this scenario. When the police are in a high crime area and see someone running from them but there is no evidence of a specific crime occurring, what can the police do? This issue has been addressed by courts in Florida and all over the country. Years ago, the United States Supreme Court decided that when a person is unprovoked and runs from the police in a high crime area, the police have a right to chase the person and briefly detain him/her to investigate further, i.e. to quickly determine if the person ran because he/she was involved in criminal activity.

However, the police can not do more than that without specific evidence of criminal activity or specific evidence that the person is armed and a possible threat to the police officer’s safety. If a person runs upon seeing police, the police officer chases and catches him/her and then searches the suspect for drugs and/or weapons, that is an illegal search. The chase and the brief detention are legal, but the search would be illegal without specific evidence that the person was committing a crime or armed. Running from the police in a high crime area allows the police to chase and stop the suspect but, without more evidence, it does not allow the police officer to pat down or search the suspect. If the police do conduct a pat down or search under those circumstances and find illegal drugs or guns, that evidence should be thrown out of court.

Florida Trafficking in Hydrocodone Charge Dismissed Where Defendant Had Drug Prescription

Published on: October 30, 2011 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

Over the last several years in Florida, drug cases involving pills such as Hydrocodone, Oxycodone, Roxycontin and other pain pills have become much more prevalent as opposed to more traditional drug crimes involving marijuana, cocaine, crack and heroin.

In a recent trafficking on Oxycodone case south of Jacksonville, Florida, the police searched the defendant and found two prescription pill bottles clearly labeled to contain Oxycodone. The pill bottles were also labeled with the defendant’s name on the prescription. Because the total weight of the Oxycodone pills in the two pill bottles was greater than 4 grams, the Oxycodone pills exceeded the weight necessary to warrant a trafficking charge. While the pills were in clearly marked prescription bottles, the police officer determined that the prescriptions were excessive- one bottle indicated a prescription for the defendant for 160 thirty milligram Oxycodone pills filled on April 7, 2010, and the other bottle indicated a prescription for 224 thirty milligram Oxycodone pills filled on April 9, 2010. The two separate prescriptions for Oxycodone were apparently written by two different doctors that were each unaware the defendant went to the other doctor for the prescription because the defendant never told either doctor she was seeing the other doctor for the same purpose.

A valid prescription for pills such as Hydrocodone from a licensed doctor written in the normal course of business is a defense to the charge of possession of, or trafficking in, pills. However, the state argued that because the defendant was engaged in doctor shopping- going to two different doctors in a short period of time to get prescription pills from each without informing the doctors of each other- the prescriptions were not given in the normal course of business so the legal prescription defense does not apply.

Florida DUI Case Thrown Out After Police Requested Blood Draw After Accident With No Injuries

Published on: October 27, 2011 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

In most DUI cases in Florida, when the polcie officer makes observations indicating the driver is impaired by alcohol, the police officer will ask the driver to submit to a breathalyzer test which tests a person’s blood alcohol level after the driver blows into the breathalyzer device. In some circumstances, the breathalyzer test is not practical, and the police officer investigating a DUI can request the driver submit to a blood test to test the driver’s blood alcohol level. This normally occurs after the driver is involved in an accident and suffers injuries making the breath test impracticable. The blood draw for the blood alcohol test is performed at the hospital where the driver has been taken to treat the injuries he/she suffered in the accident.

However, just because a person is in what appears to be a serious accident does not automatically allow the police officer investigating the driver for DUI to take the driver’s blood and have it tested for alcohol content. In a recent DUI case south of Jacksonville, Florida, the defendant lost control of her vehicle and flipped it over on the highway. To the responding police officer, it appeared to be a serious accident where a driver would normally be injured. When the polcie officer arrived, the driver was being loaded into the ambulance to be taken to the closest hospital emergency room. The police officer followed the driver and the ambulance to the hospital and made contact with the driver. The police officer indicated that the driver smelled of alcohol, had slurred speech and exhibited other signs of impairment from alcohol. However, the driver made it clear that she was not injured, had refused medical treatment and did not want to go to the hospital in the first place. At the hospital, she did not receive any medical treatment.

According to the police officer, the breathalyzer test could not be done at the hospital so he asked the driver to submit to a blood test to test her blood alcohol level. The driver agreed and submitted to the blood test. The blood test came back with a blood alcohol level above 0.08, the legal limit.

Someone Arrested for a Drug Charge Every 19 Seconds in the U.S.

Published on: October 24, 2011 | by Lasnetski Gihon Law

I saw an amazing statistic in an article about the number of people arrested on drug crimes in the United States last year. By “amazing”, I mean hopelessly pathetic and extremely wasteful and expensive. According to the statistics, more than 1.6 million people were arrested on drug offenses in 2010, which equates to a drug arrest every 19 seconds- all day, every day last year. While some might assume, or at least hope, that most of these drug arrests involved more serious drugs like heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine, more than half of these drug arrests involved marijuana. And the overwhelming majority of marijuana arrests were for simple possession of marijuana as opposed to sale or trafficking in marijuana.

These 2010 numbers represent a slight increase in drug arrests from 2009 but a more than 8% increase from ten years ago. Another disturbing aspect of these high drug arrest numbers is that incidents of other crimes have decreased. Violent crimes such as murder and robbery as well as property crimes such as theft and burglary have all decreased in the same time period these drug arrests have reached all time highs. People in the United States continue to be arrested for drug crimes more than any other crime. However, with this War on Drugs being waged for over 40 years, it is hard to see how any of this is having a beneficial effect on this country. On the other hand, it is easy to see how incredibly expensive and wasteful it continues to be.