Pinellas County Florida Criminal Lawyer Blog

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.