Pinellas County Florida Criminal Lawyer Blog

Is there any rhyme or reason to the amount of bond a judge sets?  In Pinellas County there is a uniform bond schedule - a guideline for the judges to use when setting bond, but it doesn't seem to work. 

I see first time offenders get outrageous bonds of over $100,000 and repeat offenders with violent histories get bonds of $1000.  Sometimes it depends on the judge.  Take this most recent bond set by Pinellas County Circuit Judge Jirotka.  He was appointed in 2006 by Governor Bush.  His background is in civil law with a large firm.

He set the bond of Craig Wall, a man who had just been released from prison in 2008 after serviing 17 years for armed burglary, armed robbery and grand theft auto, at $1000.  Wall's most recent arrest was for violating a domestic violence injunction taken out by his girlfriend after the suspicious death of his 5 week old son. (read more about this story) Another circuit judge gave her a the injunction and served it on Wall, ordering Wall to stay away from her.  Wall disregarded the order of the court, was arrested, and the judge let him out on a $1000 bond.  For those of you not familiar with how bonds work - that's $100 to a bail bondsman.

The following day he murders the girlfriend. 

When deciding on bond amounts, the judge must consider several factors, the most important is the safety of the victim.  $100 in a case where the guy is a violent convicted criminal, and there's a suspicious death of his son, and the girlfriend has gone through the trouble to get a court order to keep the guy away from her, hardly seems reasonable. 

  So what does one do about situations like these?  They VOTE - judges should be elected, not appointed. And judges who sit on the criminal bench need to have some working knowledge of criminal law. 

It seems the public is starting to realize what all criminal defense attorney's already know -police reports are often not accurate.   

Last week, an off duty 6 foot sheriif's deputy, Mark Eastty,  handcuffed a 9 year old boy for fighting on the playground. (St. Petersburg Times, Feb. 12, 2010)  There are numerous witnesses who say the cop was over zealous in his actions.  One witness read the police report and said it was entirely untrue. The cop writes that the boy was going to hit another boy again, the witness says that's not true. The cop neglects to mention that he called the kid stupid - several witnesses hear this.

Anyone reading this blog is probably not surprised by this.  What interests me, is that the general public would be surprised that a police officer, when facing scrutiny from his superiors or the press, would embellish his police report to make himself look better.

Having practiced juvenile law for the majority of my career, I have seen many 8 and 9 year kids get arrested and taken to juvenile detention.  Which is almost just like the adult jail, except there's school.  Worse yet, when they kids are taken before the judge, they are shackled by their hands and feet and chain together around the waist.  Adults aren't.  There's been some talk in the legislature that the chaining of juveniles in court in inhumane.  Are they just now realizing this?

According to his parents, the child, is now scared to death of police.  It's an unfortunate lesson to learn at such a young age. 

Technically, the law describes burglary as a crime where a person enters either a structure, conveyance or curtilage with the intent to commit a crime therein.  A structure could be a house or business or shed; a conveyance is usually a car; and curtilage, is the surrounding area of the house that is fenced in.  

Contrary to popular belief, the crime one is intending to commit inside of the structure does not need to be theft.  It can be criminal mischief, such as the time a kid had a party while his parents were away and all the other kids used their roller blades to ride all over the expensive hardwood floors.  Or it can be smoking pot in a shed.

Sunday's article in the St. Pete Times describes the foreclosure mess and the opportunities it creates for criminals.  The article says people enter the vacant homes and strip them of anything valuable, squat in the houses, or are using the vacant homes to hide their stolen property. 

Interestingly, this article from the Palm Beach Post. describes a very common scenario, which is NOT A CRIME.  A homeowner who was about to be foreclosed on, allowed several men to go into the home and take appliances, cabinets, toilets, copper wire, etc. The men were later charged with burglary.  The Court said that this was NOT A BURGLARY, because the owner of the home gave them permission to take the stuff.  It seems that because the house had not yet been foreclosed, it was not yet owned by the bank and therefore the men could not be convicted of burglary since the actual owner of the home allowed them to take the property. 

Since I'm forever in search of a bargain on a house, I've looked a tons of foreclosed homes.  Most of them are completely wrecked, missing appliances, door handles, pool filters, anything of value is gone.  Which makes the "bargain" not so good when you have to put $50,000 into the home to make it liveable.  I guess people think that if they are losing all the equity in their homes, why bother saving anything for the bank.  I guess they don't think about the fact that they got a mortgage for a home they could never afford.  And I guess the banks were too busy making money to realize that half the people they were giving mortgages, could never afford to pay.  Who is the real criminal here?

There's an 11 year old girl being held in the Pinellas County Juvenile Detention Center on charges of arson and attempted murder.  Apparently, she and her 15 year old boyfriend, poured gasoline around mom's bed while she slept and tried to light mom on fire.  Luckily mom escaped.

She's now being represented by a private attorney who says her mother does not want to prosecute.  If this was your child what  would you do?  11 years old is still like a baby to most mothers.  Perhaps the problem in the mother - daughter relationship was that mom didn't approve of the 15 year old boyfriend.  I hope that's what the problem is.  St. Pete Times article

This case is strikingly similar the the Valessa Robinson case from Tampa in 1998. A 15 year old girl at the time, she and her boyfriend killed her mother and dumped the body.  She's currently serving a 25 year sentence, her boyfriend on death row.  See Tampa Bay Online

So what do the courts do with a kid like this?  Even if mom has a change of heart and decides she doesn't want to prosecute, I am almost sure the state will prosecute the child without the help of mom.  And despite the popular notion that juvenile records are expunged when a person turns 18, that's not the case.  So this little girl will have an arson and attempted murder charge on her record forever.  Crazy huh? 

What about her age?  The law says that anyone under 8 years old is not mature enough to understand the consequences of their actions.  Clearly anyone under 14 can't understand the court system. - Most adults don't understand it.   Mr. Walker, the Assistant State Attorney in charge of Pinellas Juvenile Division, indicated she may be charged as an adult.  Mr. Walker rarely gets the law wrong.  But in this case, he did (Sorry Joe) - unless the child is 14 and/or has previously been convicted of a violent crime, they can't' be tried as an adult.  (A disclaimer here: Mr. Walker may have been misquoted by the St. Petersburg Times, it wouldn't be the first time the paper misquoted) 

Is the girl mentally ill?  Perhaps.  If her lawyer decided to take that route, she will have a "competency exam" which will be a review by a psychologist to decide if she can understand the court process and/or the consequences of her actions. 

Where's the boyfriend?  The 15 year old will be prosecuted as an adult.  And once the charges are filed, he'll be moved from the juvenile detention center to the Pinellas County Jail, and held in the juvenile section there.  Not a nice place.  I hope his parents can afford a lawyer.

Several days ago I wrote about a runaway dog in New Port Richey, FL who had a rope tied around her neck when she was a puppy.

Here's the picture from today's St. Petersburg Times of the dog now.  Once in awhile I need to have a feel good story on my blog.

I've always wondered whether the attorney client rooms in the jail were really private. Of course "they" say the rooms are not monitored, and allegedly the phone calls to attorney's are not monitored either. But my paranoia of big brother has never been alleviated - UNTIL NOW.

An investigator with the Public Defender's Office was using the private rooms to have  SEX WITH HER BOYFRIEND who is an inmate.(Tywan Armstrong who has a ridiculously long record and has been in the Pinellas County Jail since last January - I sincerely hope she didn't meet him there) It took jail officials 2 months to figure this out. With this in mind, the rooms are clearly not monitored. But they probably will be now.  For those of you that have never been in the Pinellas County Jail, only attorney's, doctor's, or other jail personal are allowed into the interview rooms.  If you are visiting an inmate, you go to a trailer across the street and watch your friend on a video screen.  They stay in the jail.  There are no in-person visits.  And for the 100th time - THOSE VISITS ARE TAPED AND MONITORED.  I am 100% sure of it. 

When someone in custody hires me, my first line of attack is to get them out. I NEVER want to talk about the facts of the crime while they're in jail, because I'm afraid someone is listening. If you look up at the ceiling in the attorney/client rooms, there is a camera. Who knows if it has sound? I guess it's not on because this lady was able to get away with HAVING SEX with her boyfriend. Yuck - the jail is dirty. Here's a picture from Hillsborough County Jail - the interview rooms in Pinellas don't look this good.

So what was the lady charged with?  Good question, she hasn't been yet.  The media reported that she was "charged" with one count of offical misconduct which is a 3rd degree felony.  But read the FL Statute

838.022  Official misconduct.--

(1)  It is unlawful for a public servant, with corrupt intent to obtain a benefit for any person or to cause harm to another, to:

(a)  Falsify, or cause another person to falsify, any official record or official document;

(b)  Conceal, cover up, destroy, mutilate, or alter any official record or official document or cause another person to perform such an act; or

(c)  Obstruct, delay, or prevent the communication of information relating to the commission of a felony that directly involves or affects the public agency or public entity served by the public servant.

(2)  For the purposes of this section:

(a)  The term "public servant" does not include a candidate who does not otherwise qualify as a public servant.

(b)  An official record or official document includes only public records.

(3)  Any person who violates this section commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

I don't think it fits - it seems the Legislature never contemplated such a mess . . . .

Lately I've notice a plethora of article about crimes against animals - specifically dogs.  I actually got a dog for Christmas.  For several months I've been looking for a dog and this one, a beautiful chocalate lab, was found running around the parking lot of my office. Apparently she escaped from her owners.  It seems she was an "outdoor dog".   This is where I rant.   One should not have an "outdoor dog" in Florida.    It's too hot, dogs aren't meant to be in 100% humidity and 95 degree weather.  (Nor are people, but that's another topic for another day.)

Over the years, I've had many pets.  Some people say that if you are good in this life, you will come back to life as one of my dogs.  I follow closely the crimes against animals.  Michael Vick and the dog fighting, the guy who had sex with his neighbors horse in South Carolina, and most recently this case from New Port Richey, FL, where someone tied a rope around a Puppy's neck and let it grow  into the dog's neck.  Like my new dog, the dog ran for days before anyone was able to catch him and get him help.  

Then there's a story in today's Tampa Tribune about a nutcase who has been overbreeding dogs for four years.  The SPCA investigators go to his house and take dogs, but no one stops him.  The dogs are sick and malnurished.  

Do people realize that if they take care of their pets,  feed them, and let them inside of their homes and hearts they'll have the best friend of their lives?  What else in life is as constant as a good dog?

Unfortunately, the law doesn't protect animals.  There's a misdemeanor and felony charge of  animal cruelty but it is rarely prosecuted.  (see FL Statute 828) In fact, dog fighting is only a misdemeanor.  

One more story from Christmas - a New Port Richey doberman New Port Richey doberman ran away one month ago and was returned home for Christmas.  The owner's say she escaped from the back yard.  If she was left in the back yard - why do you think she ran away? Shocker of all shocker's the owner was a cop.

A few days ago, I wrote a scathing blog entry about Hernando County detective who was arrested for domestic battery. 

Not really shocking to me or anyone else reading this - those charges have been dropped.

According to the newspaper article (see St. Pete Times), the wife was drunk, blacked out, and was out of control. 

Of course it was all her fault.  Why wouldn't it be?

I guess he gets his gun back. 

Who is actually in charge of setting the amount of a bond when someone is arrested?

The short answer is, the arresting officer usually sets the bond, and the first appearance judge has the ability to raise or lower it.  In Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsbourough Counties there is a "Uniform Bond Schedule ", which basically gives the judge guidelines of what the bond should be.  However, a judge can go up or down from that schedule for any reason. 

There was a recent St. Petersburg Times article about Pinellas County bond hearings.  The point of the article seemed to be that the judge makes a decision too quickly when considering a bond reduction.  What the article failed to mention, however, is how experienced the judge, the prosecutor, and most defense attorneys are with bond hearings and the law behind them.  The judge, and the prosecutor can spot a flight risk or a threat from a mile away.  Of course they are not right 100% of the time, but they usually are.

Basically, a judge will look at:

• Ties to the community, included in this is the length of time the person has lived here, whether or not they own property here, if they are employed, and if they have family here.
• The wishes of the victim.
• The safety of the public.
• Whether or not the person has failed to appear for court hearings in the past.

Note that the purpose of requiring a bond is to ensure that you will show up in court.

So, if you are arrested for misdemeanor possession of marijuana your bond will be quite low.  However, if this is your 3rd possession arrest and you've failed to appear for court hearings in the past - the bond will be higher.  Similarly, if you shoot someone and the vicitm or the vicitm's family shows up at the bond hearing and says they are afraid, your bond will probably not be reduced.  A victim who cares enough to show up a bond hearing is almost always fatal to the defendant's request for reduction.

Hernando County, on the other hand, appears to have a very arbitrary bond schedule.  The nemesis behind this blog is a recent arrest of a man for trafficking pills.   His bond was set at $4.3 million dollars. Why give him a bond at all?  Unless you want the press to pick up the story and make Hernando County sound even more ridiculous than it already does. 

So, if that guy has $430,000 (which is 10% - for the math challenged) he might be able to find a bondsman somewhere to bond him out.  Unfortuantely, most bond companies I have ever talked with require collateral (a house, truck, bank account, gold) in the amount of the entire bond.  Chances are this guy isn't getting out any time soon.  Even if he could come up with the $430,000, he probably doesn't have $4.3 million in assets, or he wouldn't be living in Hernando County. 

Bonds are usually very easy to get reduced, unless the judge thinks you are a flight risk, or you are a threat to society.  If you need a bond or bond reduction - call me.  I may be able to help.

(I actually wrote part of this blog last week and am glad I waited to publish it.  There was a great editorial about this on TBO.com and the comments afterward are right on point.)

Deputy (or detective) Jeff Swartz was arrested last weekend for domestic battery on his wife.  Although I certainly don't mean to wish ill will upon anyone, certainly not Mr. Swartz's wife, I feel like I saw this coming.  I have worked with Det. Swartz and happen to personally know that he has very loose ethics and boundaries when it comes to being a law enforcement officer.  If my readers have sensed and overwhelming dislike of law enforcement in this blog, Det. Swartz is partially to blame.  He worked on a car burglary case where I represented a kid with no prior record. Prior to any charges being filed, I called Detective Swartz to see what the facts of the case were and to see if I could prevent the charges from being filed.  He welcomed the opportunity to talk with my client.  When I brought my client into Detective Swartz's office, my client signed a form which basically said he would be charged with only 3 crimes and would be granted immunity on any other crime which he revealed to Det. Swartz in our meeting.   

During that meeting, I asked Det. Swartz on at least 3 occassions whether or not we were being recorded.  "No", he said each time.   

Several weeks later, Det. Swartz charged my client with 7 other crimes, clearly using the evidence my client gave him during the meeting.  According to the police report, and Det. Swartz's statements to the State Attorney, that wasn't how he found the evidence.  I knew that wasn't true and I presented that evidence to the assistant State Attorney. The assistant State Attorney told me he had seen the tape of the interview.  "What tape?" I asked.

"The tape of your client's interview in the Sheriff's Office."  the attorney replied.

"Det. Swartz told me several times that the conversation was not being taped." I replied.

"You have no expectation of privacy in a police department." the attorney told me.

While it may be true that I have no expectation of privacy in a police department,  I do (or used to) have an expectation that a sworn law enforcment officer won't lie when he's asked a direct question by a defense attorney.  I was able to work out an ok deal for my client, but I will never forget the extent of  Detective Swartz's questionable investigative tactics. He also wrote a press release and released the name of the juvenile, clearly seeking kudos for himself and his great crime solving skill.  Note that my client was a kid, with no prior record, and these were car burglaries - not murders. In my 10 years of working with police, I have never encountered a member of law enforcement, with such questionable ethics.  Somehow I knew that his karma would catch up with him.  It has. 

On Saturday night he was arrested for Domestic Battery against his wife. (detective Jeff Swartz)  He's now on administrative leave.  Apparently, he strangled her and grabbed her and she had red marks on her arms consistent with injuries from him. (Note that this is his booking photo - why does he get special treatment?)

 Interesting to me is the repsonse from the Hernando Sheriff's Office and the public in this case.  Check out this editorial from TBO.com.  Most interestingly, check out the reader comments beneath it.  Note that almost everyone who cares enough to comment on this realized the complete inconsistencies with what Swartz was charged with and what the average person would have been charged with. 

This case will be prosecuted in Citrus County, because the State Attorney's Office in Hernando has a conflict. (See TBO.com article from October 9, 2009)

According to the Hernando Clerk's website, he will be hiring a private attorney.  Interesting . . . . although I handle a ton of domestic violence cases, I would never handle his.  But I might represent her . . . for free.  October is Domestic Violence Awarness month, I wonder how the Hernando County Sheriff's Office will handle this.

DISCLAIMER:  THIS ARTICLE REFERS TO HERNANDO COUNTY ONLY AND THE WRITER HAS NEVER HAD ANY SIMILAR EXPERIENCES WITH PINELLAS, PASCO, OR HILLSBOUROUGH COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICES.

I wanted to give you an update on Allen Burney, the infamous video producer of "Da Hood Gone Wild."   For those of you who don't know who he is, see my blog post from September 1, 2009.  (pinellas county criminal lawyer blog) Shockingly he was convicted of murder and sentenced to Life in Prison without the possiblity of Parole.  (See St. Petersburg Times article from October 10, 2009)

If you remember in the previous blog, I talked about his jail house video where he tells his peeps, it ain't no thing.  Wonder how he feels now? 

Regardless of how many times I say this, some people never listen.  ALL CALLS FROM EVERY JAIL ARE RECORDED. Even the calls to your lawyer.  Allegedly, no one listens to the calls to your lawyer, however, I do not believe that is the case.  They can't use the information against you, but they can listen to the calls, regardless of how unethical that may be.  (HMMM, a government that's unethical  - imagine that) 

Last week in the St. Petersburg Times there was an article about a lawyer who, during a routine discovery request asked for the tape recorded calls from the jail.  He was surprised to learn his calls were recorded on that tape as well.  The only thing surprising about that to me, is that the State or the jail didn't redact (erase) his calls before they gave him the tape. (See also editorial from Oct. 3, 2009)

As a prosecutor in the Pinellas County State Attorney's Office, I often listened to the inmates calls from the jail, and was often able to hear confessions, or admissions to other crimes.  A few years after I left, the prosecutors got access to the calls easily through a computer program accessible from their desks.  Once again, the State Attorney's Office as well as jail employees listen to the calls.  Trust me.

Recently, the Pasco County Jail revamped it's taping (monitoring) system. When you are booked in, they give you a pin number which is voice activated.  Why do you think they did that?  So, they knew for sure, who was calling and which numbers they were dialing to.  Big brother watches - and the Florida and the US Supreme Court agree that you have no expectation of privacy in jail. 

The answer is YES!!!  Why?  Because many times the judge won't listen to you without one.  The domestic violence courts are overrun with frivolous accusations and the dockets are crowded.  Even if you have evidence and witnesses that support your case, a judge often won't let you present it.  In Pasco County, the judge's have actually told me that I am allowed 15 minutes to present my case.  Unfortunately, that is the way it works.  And if the judge has any reason to think that the allegations are untruthful, or true, they grant or dismiss the injunciton immediately, with barely any testimony from either side. 

Let me give you a perfect example:  A man in St. Petersburg was recently arrested for kidnapping and raping his girlfriend.  They had dated for approximately six months, according to the St. Petersburg Times.  He also hid in the trunk of her car and popped out, forced her into the passengers seat and drove her to his house where the offense occured.  These are not the actions of a first time offender. 

In 2007 and 2008, another woman whom he was dating filed two seperate petitions for domestic violence injunctions against him.  On both occassions, a hearing was held at which time I am assuming the woman presented her testimony to the court. On both occassions, the injunctions were dismissed for insufficient evidence.  I wonder if the judge's would believe this woman now?  If she had a lawyer to represent her in court, she may have gotten those injunctions.  Note he did not have a lawyer either, and he was able to prevail. 

The point is that generally, in domestic violence situations, it is better to have an attorney if you have something to say.   Call me if you have any questions - I would be more than happy to represent you or point you in the right direction. 

Both the St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune printed articles about a St. Petersburg police officer who resigned rather than being fired. Although the resignation, nor the almost firing are really important to me, he was about to be fired for lying and cheating.  The reason for being untruthful is what bothers me. 

Apparently, according to the papers,  Reynaldo Smith and his girlfriend were in some kind of argument which worried his roomates enough to call the police. Note his girlfriend didn't call the police, someone else did. This always says something to me, because for someone else to get involved in anyone's domestic problems, it had to be bad.  Plus, whoever called the police had to know he was a cop, and how much trouble he could potentially be in if he was arrested for beating his girlfriend - or what he might do to them when he realized they were the ones who called.

When Hillsborough deputies arrived they find Mr. Smith to be entirely uncooperative, and refusing to leave his girlfriend's side while telling her not to talk to the police.  Hmmm . . . this SCREAMS domestic batter to me. I see this behavior all the time because I handle so many  domestic violence cases, but I would think a police officer, knowing how someone usually goes to jail in a domestic dispute, would know better than to act like this. Additionally, he refused to give up his weapon. (note in the Hillsborough County Clerk website there's a motion for return of property which was granted by the Court. Although I do not know exactly what property he was requesting be returned, I can guess.) If anyone knows the girlfriend, please talk some sense into her, this guy is an accident waiting to happen.

The Pinellas County State Attorney's Office just convicted a guy named Allan Burney for murder, two counts of attmepted murder, and shooting into an occupied vehicle. While I'm usually not in agreement with the prosecution, in this case, I will have to say the State did the right thing.

Let me give you a little background on this guy. Burney and his buddy make DVD's called "DA HOOD GONE WILD", depicting himself and his neighborhood friends fighting, holding guns, and degrading women.  I didn't believe it myself until I Googled the wonderfully eloquent title and found his website. There's a picture of him on the site, looking like a refugee from "In Living Color". The website says it's "REACHIN OUT TO THE HOOD".  Call me crazy but I thought the whole idea was to get out of the hood.  If you want, you can order the Gangsta 2 pak for around $45.00.  Can you think of a better way to spend your money?  Do the people who actually order this stuff have credit cards? 

What made me so pro prosecution in this case was Mr. Burney's self promotion on Youtube.  Specifically the promo for DVD #2.  Because I think he deserves no more self promotion, I won't include the video on my blog.  However, for your viewing pleasure,or disgust,here's the link to YOUTUBE.

It gets even more ridiculous when you see his cell phone video from jail. Note, this is him on the other side of a plastic wall, wearing jail blues, telling his "peeps" it ain't no thing.  Really?  I'll let you know what he's sentenced to next month.  It may be a "thing" for him when he gets life.