Case Results

VIOLATION OF PROBATION CHARGES DISMISSED

Client was charged with violating probation for not appearing for probation appointments. Client lives several hours away and an arrest capias was in the system. She would be arrested and transported to the county where the capias was issued costing her several days in jail. We showed the State she was hospitalized or in rehab from an accident at the time of the missed appointments. The court withdrew the arrest capias, dismissed the violation charge and extended probation to give the client time to complete all other conditions.

DUI REDUCED

Our client was pulled over after his girlfriend honked at an off-duty JSO officer, mistakenly thinking she knew him. The officer went home, armed himself, got into his patrol car, and returned to conduct a traffic stop. He interrogated our client, who gave evasive answers as he was trying to prolong his evening with his girlfriend. The officer called for a DUI unit, and after field sobriety tests, our client was arrested for DUI. We filed a motion to suppress the stop due to insufficient cause. This led to a negotiation resulting in a withholding of adjudication on a reckless driving charge instead of a DUI.

DUI CHARGES DROPPED

Client went to his car to get his medications and fell asleep in his driveway. Officers arrived and found him under the influence of his medications and arrested him for DUI. During the hearing to prevent his license suspension the client confided that the key he used to enter his vehicle is only to lock and unlock the car; it is not an ignition key. After locking the arresting officer into a set of facts, i.e., he did not try the key in the ignition, client testified. The hearing officer accompanied us to the parking lot and tested the key herself. Driver’s license returned. I sent a copy of the audio from the DMV hearing to the prosecutor in the case and charges were dropped.

DUI WITH TRAFFIC CRASH DISMISSED

In June 2011, the client was involved in a traffic crash and taken to a hospital, where he refused a law enforcement request for a blood draw. An arrest warrant was issued, and he was arrested on September 12, 2011, for DUI, DUI with damage, and criminal refusal of a blood test. After setting a court date for a related civil careless driving citation, the criminal charges were initially not found in the clerk's records. When the connection was discovered, we strategically paid the citation, preventing action on the criminal cases. The State Attorney's Office failed to file the criminal charges until December 15, 2011, missing the 90-day speedy trial requirement. Consequently, the court dismissed the charges against the client.

DUI REDUCED

Client was stopped for going over 100 mph on Atlantic Blvd. over the Intracoastal bridge from Jacksonville to Atlantic Beach. He admitted to several alcohol drinks and was arrested for DUI. After months of litigation, although the State’s case was solid, we showed that our client hadn’t been in trouble before, he was active within his community and at the time of driving, he was distraught because it was the first anniversary of the death of his son. He had been despondent and depressed. He was honest with the officers and sincerely remorseful for his actions. The State reduced the charges.

DUI REDUCED

Client was pulled over in Jacksonville Beach in 2003 and was arrested for DUI. The stop and DUI investigation were on video. The State qualified their arresting officer as an expert in Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus and the case was set for trial several times during its eight year life. This client paid a flat pretrial fee in 2003 and was never billed for more. Just before trial in 2012, the State finally reduced to reckless driving.

SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGES DROPPED

Client was visited by detectives because a young female claimed he had had sexual relations with her. She alleged he set up the rendezvous via texting her and e-messaging her. We refused an interview with the detectives. We refused to turn over his phone without a warrant. The detectives could not verify her allegations with her phone. They obtained a subpoena and obtained his phone information from the provider. We continually pressed the detectives that our client never had any relations with her and any texting was innocuous as she was a distant niece. DCF interviewed the victim and determined the assault occurred. The detectives approached the State for a warrant. We contacted the State and presented our facts. The State refused to issue the warrant. Case was closed.

DUI DROPPED

A recent college graduate was pulled over for speeding, and the Deputy claimed to smell alcohol, noting bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, initiating a DUI investigation. After being read his Miranda rights, the client asked to call a lawyer but was told one wasn't available, and the Deputy continued with questioning and field sobriety tests. The client requested again to contact his father for a lawyer and was arrested when he moved toward his car. After unsuccessful negotiations with the State Attorney, we filed a Motion to Suppress Evidence due to a violation of Miranda rights and lack of probable cause. The Judge ruled in our favor, citing the client's right to counsel was violated as the Deputy ignored his request, referencing *Davis v. United States (1994)*. The State Attorney dropped the charges, but the client had already missed out on five job offers due to the pending case. Now, with the charges dropped, he can move forward with his career.

BURGLARY CHARGES REDUCED

Client was arrested in Nevada and extradited to Florida for home burglary charges based on DNA evidence found at the scene. The home had been entered via a back door during last year’s hurricane Irma. Nothing was taken except the TVs appeared as if the burglar tried to remove them from the wall. The State based the burglary charge on the attempted theft of the televisions. Our client’s medical records showed he had reported over the years hearing voices from the TV and we offered the medical records to show there was no intent to commit the crime of theft so the case was a simple trespass. The State reluctantly agreed and the charge was reduced.

DUI DROPPED

Client was sleeping in his car at the Castillo De San Marcos fort parking lot in St. Augustine. His engine was revving. Police knocked on his window and got him out of the vehicle. He was highly intoxicated. He was a foreign student in college locally on a sports scholarship. We showed the police had no reasonable suspicion to request he exit his vehicle. Before the hearing, the State agreed to defer prosecution. Upon completing community service hours, the State dropped the case. The client was able to keep his student visa and graduated from college.

DUI DROPPED

Two different clients pled guilty to DUI charges at their first appearance hearings in jail, were sentenced and placed on probation. During probation, they each contacted us. We filed motions to overturn their pleas. We were successful in getting their guilty pleas overturned after investigating the circumstances of each of the DUI cases and their strengths and weaknesses, we were able to negotiate both of the DUI charges to be reduced to charges of reckless driving for both clients. They both avoided convictions and no longer have a DUI on their record.

CRIMINAL TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS

This client came to us less than a week before his scheduled honeymoon cruise. He had received a letter that a warrant had been issued to arrest him because he failed to appear on a Driving While License Suspended (Knowingly) charge. I informed him that the authorities would arrest him as he embarked or debarked on the outstanding warrant. He needed urgent action. I filed a motion to withdraw the capias (warrant) and fortunately got the judge to set it 3 days before his cruise, and the judge withdrew the warrant and provided him a copy so he could show it to the cruise authorities if he got detained. While he was cruising, I showed the State they had no evidence his case was criminal “knowingly” but was really a civil “unknowingly” driving with a suspended license because his suspension was for financial responsibility which is exempted from the legal “knowingly” presumption. Two weeks later, before the hearing on my motion to dismiss, the State dropped the case. I informed the client of the total success on the day he was driving home from his cruise.

CRIMINAL TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS

Client contacted us because his drivers license was suspended from several tickets in Jacksonville, Miami-Dade County, and in Illinois. We reviewed his driving record and were able to clear up the issues in Illinois and Miami-Dade. We filed motions in the Jacksonville civil ticket cases as well as the pending criminal case. We re-opened ticket cases to reverse convictions and eliminate his points suspension. Our client got a drivers license for the first time and years and we were able to avoid a conviction in the criminal charge.

DUI

Client allegedly ran car through a lowered cross bar and slammed into the last car of a moving train late at night in San Marco. The car was essentially demolished. The deputy that arrived spoke with client after paramedics were finished with him. He smelled alcohol on the driver’s breath who was unable to do well on the filed sobriety exercises and was arrested for DUI and take to jail. At the jail he was not offered a breath test because he was not allowed admittance by the nurse. The officer transported him to the hospital where the officer alleged he refused a blood draw request. We filed a motion to suppress the refusal of a blood draw as unauthorized because the breath test was not impractical or impossible. We showed the State that even if we were to lose the motion, the client claimed no blood was ever requested and at trial would show the deputy could not remember details about his request for a blood draw and that he left the client with hospital security and went home just moments after arriving at the hospital because he was already way over his shift departure time. The State reduced the charge to Reckless Driving with no conviction.

CRIMINAL TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS

Client retained our services to help remove a Habitual Traffic Offender (HTO) status and assist him in obtaining a new driver license. We broke the process down into three (3) easy steps for the client. First, we reviewed his driving record. Upon review, we realized that he had several “failure to pay” issues. He paid these to minimize the effect of the outstanding debts. Second, we filed a motion on several tickets that had not yet been paid, and requested the judge withhold adjudication of guilt on the various charges so that he would not receive points added to his license. Finally, with all other driving record issues cleared, we filed a motion in the above numbered case to temporarily set aside a plea of not guilty to the charge of driving on a suspended license that our client had entered in 2011. These driving on suspended license convictions act as a “strike” that can lead to a HTO status. The State agreed to not object to the temporary withdrawal of his plea, on the condition that he obtain a new license and not pick up any new charges while this case was being resolved. Once the plea was withdrawn, we contacted the DMV in Tallahassee to remove his HTO status. Client has successfully obtained a new license and restored his ability to drive.

DUI

Client was arrested for her third DUI in less than two years. She was on probation for her second DUI. She was facing significant jail time. Client was standing at her car inside the open driver’s door when police arrived because she had been fighting in the street with the girl who had been her passenger. The police asked about the fight and let the passenger go. Client was given field sobriety tests and arrested for DUI. We filed a motion to suppress evidence from an unlawful arrest. No crime occurred in the officer’s presence because client was not “in or on” the car for purposes of being in “actual physical control.” We also averred that all her statements were inadmissible because she was never read her rights and this was not a traffic stop. She was in custody for purposes of the Fifth Amendment when the officer let the passenger go but would not let the client call her friend to pick her up and said “No friend is going to come get you. You are not going anywhere.” The motion was granted. The State dropped the case.

DUI

Our client was arrested for DUI after committing several traffic infractions at a high rate of speed. His breath alcohol level was well above the .08 limit at .25. A conviction would result in a 10 year driver’s license suspension and a minimum of 30 days in jail. During our interview with him we discovered he was a USAF veteran whose alcoholism was service related. We filed a motion to refer him to Veteran’s Court. After a hearing, the court approved him for Veteran’s Court. After 12 months of successful Veteran’s Court treatment, the case was dismissed.

CRIMINAL TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS

Client came to us with an HTO (Habitual Traffic Offender) 5-year suspension and was charged with a new Felony Driving on a Suspended License charge. He was facing significant jail time in one county. First, we moved to Vacate and Set Aside the his previous conviction in another county which gave him the HTO. It was initially denied but we moved to reconsider and appeared before the court and were successful. This removed the HTO from his license. He obtained a new license and we appeared for the felony. The State reduced the charge to a misdemeanor charge of No Valid Driver’s License which does not result in a new HTO designation. He paid fines.

DUI REDUCED

I appeared in court recently on a DUI case. I had filed a motion to suppress all the evidence because I averred the stop was not constitutional. A Neptune Beach police officer stopped my client westbound on Atlantic Blvd., the dividing border between Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach. Westbound is Atlantic Beach. The State attempted to uphold the stop as valid by introducing a Mutual Aid Agreement between the beach municipalities and the city of Jacksonville. I attacked the agreement as overbroad and possibly tampered with. When I showed the State the 2015 agreement with the 2015 signatures and their 2018 agreement which had the same 2015 signatures with three 2015 signatures removed and three new 2018 signatures added, they agreed to reduce the charge to Reckless Driving. My client pled to Reckless Driving and the court withheld adjudication of guilt, meaning she was not convicted.

DUI

Client was leaving a Jaguars game and was involved in a traffic crash in which he allegedly hit a parked trailer. He stopped to check the damage. Police arrived as he and his passenger were outside the car looking at the damage. The police arrested him for DUI and he blew three times the limit. But the police could not find where the accident happened. We prepared a motion to suppress statements prior to proof of corpus delicti (proving a crime even happened) and any statements protected by the Accident Report Privilege which protects statements made at a crash investigation as compelled because the law requires one involved in an accident to tell the investigating officer what happened. Without his statements, the State had no proof he was the driver of the vehicle. We also prepared a Motion to Suppress the breath test for an Unlawful Arrest. The State could not arrest for a DUI unless it occurred in their presence except in an accident case. The State had no crash scene so had no crash investigation to support the arrest. The State reviewed our motions (we never even had to file them) and reduced the charge. Client pled No Contest to Reckless Driving and the Court Withheld Adjudication of Guilt.

DUI

Client drove away from the scene of the stop of her vehicle when her boyfriend driver ran off after being stopped. Though she had had too much to drink and drive – the reason her boyfriend was driving – she moved to the driver’s seat and drove two blocks to her house. While walking into her apartment, the officer who had been searching for the driver stopped her and arrested her for DUI and Resisting an Officer for trying to run into her apartment ahead of him. Through aggressive defense work including setting the case for trial, the State eventually agreed to reduce the DUI to Reckless Driving for no conviction and dropped the Resisting charge.

DUI DROPPED

Our client was driving in Jax Beach and ran a stop sign. He was stopped and performed field sobriety exercises for the officer and was arrested and refused a breath test. A jury was selected. At trial, we focused on the officer’s lack of memory of details of our client’s field sobriety exercises. The breath test operator did not remember him but took detailed notes of his contact with our client. He walked our client from the intake area to the breath test room. He observed bloodshot, watery eyes and an odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath. On cross-examination we brought out he observed no signs of impairment, merely signs of ingestion. The jury returned a NOT GUILTY verdict in 67 minutes.

DUI REDUCED

Our client was pulled over because the registration on his vehicle had expired 4 days earlier. The police claimed to smell alcohol on his breath and required him to complete field sobriety tests. Review of the dashboard camera video showed that our client performed exceptionally well on the tests. At the DHSMV Administrative Review hearing, the arresting officer made several comments, on the record, that brought significant questions regarding probable cause to arrest our client to light. Based on the DHSMV transcript and the video evidence, we filed a Motion to Suppress the evidence against our client. After the State reviewed our motion, they reduced the charges to reckless driving. Adjudication was withheld – no conviction – and our client was able to avoid further suspension of his license.

DUI

Our client was stopped after driving erratically, almost hitting a wall on JTB. The officer captured her field sobriety exercises on video, which were inconclusive, and she was arrested for DUI after refusing a breath test. At trial, she testified that she was upset and texting her boyfriend, who had just broken up with her, leading to a hung jury. In the second trial, we successfully excluded the video from evidence, leaving the arresting officer unprepared to provide detailed testimony. Our client used her phone bill to show she was receiving texts during her poor driving. We argued that it was her “very bad day” due to the breakup and her mother’s hospitalization, and asked the jury to make it her “very good day.” They agreed, returning a NOT GUILTY verdict in 44 minutes.

DUI dropped to simple traffic citation

My client mistakenly entered the wrong lane as she approached an intersection at the foot of an intracoastal waterway bridge. Upon realizing her error, she moved to the right lane and stopped at the intersection. A deputy nearby observed the violation and pulled her over. After admitting to having one cocktail with dinner two hours earlier, she was given a roadside sobriety test. She "performed poorly" and "demonstrated sufficient clues" to be arrested for DUI. Post-arrest, she blew a very low .024 on her breath test. Recognizing they could not proceed with a DUI charge, the State charged her with "Reckless Driving," which remains a criminal offense. Reckless driving requires driving in a "willful and wanton" manner, without regard for the safety of others. However, her driving was not reckless; it was simply careless. As we neared the trial date, the State agreed with my assessment that the case did not meet the criteria to prosecute as a crime. The criminal case was dropped, and she received a citation for careless driving — a traffic infraction, not a criminal offense. While this outcome was favorable, it still cannot make up for the night she spent in jail.

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