Pinellas County Florida Criminal Lawyer Blog

In a story similar to one I hear every day, the St. Petersburg Times reports a man who returned home from jail after an evening stay for domestic battery, finds all of his belongings gone. No shocker to me. I handle tons of domestic battery cases where someone has been wrongly accused and then arrested for domestic battery and then comes home to find all of their things missing. It is the quickest way for one party to get the other out of the house. Filing domestic violence injunctions with random tales of violence works well too.

Usually when I hear the story about all of their things missing, the person has already called the police and been told it is a "civil matter" and there's nothing they can do. In fact I've never heard of someone actually being arrested for throwing out all of the belonging of a spouse or live in lover, when the other is arrested for domestic violence. But the Pasco County Sheriff's Office seems to have a new policy of arresting women in domestic situations - regardless of who the aggressor is. So they arrested the man for domestic battery, then had to arrest the woman for something too, so they get her for grand theft.  How the heck can this guy prove she got rid of $6500 worth of his stuff? Where did that number come from? I would love to represent this woman.

Here's the thing with domestic violence in Pasco County. The Pasco County Sheriff's Office, despite numerous offers from myself and the domestic violence shelters, refuses to train their deputies as to what domestic violence actually is. And, because most of the road deputies are young and uneducated, they themselves have no clue. Contrary to my personal belief, the ability to read people and decide who is telling the truth is not common sense.
In the past several months I've seen numerous woman be arrested for domestic violence which were clear cases of self defense. The woman are almost always victims who have finally had enough and fight back. I say good for them. Then the men, knowing how the system works, call 911 and the women get arrested. These are the woman who can afford to hire me. I know this happens a lot more than even I realize.

And this picture is for all the haters out there who are appalled by it - read my blog, if you can read, before you condemn the picture.

There was a family law lawyer who stole from her clients, was disbarred and charged criminally with grand theft. She intended to take it to trial, which never happened. Perhaps because of the advice of her attorney, or perhaps because she couldn't afford to pay the attorney. I happen to know personally, from talking with other local attorney's that the evidence against her was overwhelming. So she pled open (that means without a plea deal from the State) and was sentenced to 4 and ½ years in prison.

Being a criminal lawyer, I often think what I would do if I were sentenced to prison. It would kill me to leave my kids and my family. And the strip search, the food, and the polyester uniform would be uncomfortable. But I'd probably survive as a jail house lawyer because I could write appeals for the other inmates.

What the heck was this woman thinking? She has two young children. If you read the The Florida Bar News, which posts all of the disciplinary actions against Florida attorney's, more than half of the suspensions and disbarments are for violating trust fund rules.

Let me explain what a trust fund is. If a lawyer owns their own firm, they must have a trust fund account. This is an entirely separate account from an operating account. If a lawyer charges by the hour, the money given to them by clients goes into this account until it is EARNED.  If a lawyer takes money from a client for safe keeping, for example, I might take money from my clients to pay for court fees, that money goes into the account. IT DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. As a criminal lawyer, I RARELY use my trust account. I don't charge by the hour, because if I don't get the money up front, and my client goes to jail, I never see any money. It's the same reason I rarely take payment plans. But almost all other lawyers use their trust accounts. And because you get a monthly statement from the bank, it's very easy for the IRS, the Florida Bar, or you, to track the money in the account.
So, this woman was pocketing her trust money, the money belonging to her clients, which is otherwise known as stealing. There is nothing else to call it. It's not a mistake, it's stealing. There is no way you can be confused as to where that money should go. It's simple. You have two bank accounts, one for your money and one for your clients.

It doesn't surprise me that she took the money. What surprises me is the GALL - to use an adjective from one of the commentors on the St. Petersburg Times news article - that she even tried to get out of this or made any attempt to pay back her clients. Judge Michael Andrews is one of the toughest judges in the Sixth Circuit. He told her that coming to court on her sentencing with a substantial sum of money toward her restitution would significantly mitigate her sentence. She showed up with $250, which is basically like laughing in the Court's face.

One of the first things I would do if it was me in the Defendant's position, would be to figure out how the judge works. She could have asked or she could have sat in his courtroom on any given day and watched how he worked. In Judge Andrews courtroom, 15 minutes is all you need to get a clue. While some people might say he's unfair and arrogant, I have practiced before him since he came onto the bench as misdemeanor judge in Pinellas County. What he has is common sense. He also knows the law and is generally fair. He's not always nice about it, but he tends to call a spade a spade and see through people's BS. Clearly something many people don't like. This woman obviously had some delusions of grandeur.

Some people become lawyers because it is prestigious. Others because they want to make a lot of money. I became a lawyer because I wanted to change the world. It bothers me that this woman just made a mockery out of the profession and then had the GALL to stand in a court and expect special treatment because she WAS a lawyer. And kudos to Judge Andrews for not allowing it to happen.

Tuesday, the courthouse was set for trial in a fraud case. One Matthew was on trial. He was late and sent his twin brother, hoping no one would notice.  Unfortunately, it was his own lawyer who noticed.  And more unfortunately for both twins, when the judge figured it out, the twin posing as Matthew  got 178 days in jail for contempt, while his brother is sitting on a no bond hold for failing to appear at trial.

For those of you who think lawyers have no ethics, consider this, if we were to let a man be convicted and it was the wrong guy, and he went to prison - would that be right?  I can think of no lawyer, prosecutor or defense attorney who doesn't think wrongly convicting innocent people is the worst possible thing.

This guy's lawyer had to say something or risk prosecution of the wrong guy. It's a terrible quandary for the defense attorney. Because he's technically doing the right thing, but it's his own client, the one he's supposed to be fighting for, that's getting into the most trouble. As a defense attorney, however, it's not part of your job to babysit your clients and make sure they show up in court. This guy knew what time he needed to be in court, he'd probably known for months. Short of holding the guys hand, how was the attorney to be responsible for that?

See this editorial from the St. Petersburg Times on lawyer ethics.  It offers a great perspective on the kind of things criminal defense attorneys have to deal with.

In this economy, how is anyone supposed to make money? 

The economic crimes unit of the Clearwater Police arrested 6 people for unlicensed contracting, last week.  Allegedly, these arrests are to protect the public from shoddy work.  The cops went out and requested bids and then arrested the people once the bids were given for contracting without a license.  WHICH IS A MISDEMEANOR, not to mention bordering on entrapment by the police. 

Just so everyone is clear, most work done on your house requires someone to pull a permit.  The permit costs money, and only the homeowner or a licensed contractor can pull one.  The county and city allegedly want to control the work  done on your house to protect the public and make sure your house is safe.   Allegedly this is to protect the public from shoddy workmanship, but we all know this is merely another way for the government to collect money. 

Let's face it.  Regardless of the economy, people still have to pay someone when their house needs to be fixed.  Does it matter if someone has a license?  I don't think so.  Years ago, I owned a house in St. Petersburg and a licensed contractor named Dean Jarvis , doing business as Florida Renovators,  charged me an OUTRAGEOUS sum of money to fix my roof.  It was during the summer and it should have been no surprise to Jarvis or his subcontractors that it might rain at night.  Did they cover the roof???  Heck no, and it poured rain causing water to come through the ceiling into all of the light fixtures, short out the electric, and wreck the ORGINAL hardwood floors and walls of this 1920's historic home.  A lot of good it did me to hire a licensed contractor.  Then, the jerk had the GALL to put a lien on my house for work not paid for.  Note that had he not been a "licensed" contractor, he never could have filed a lien. 

I called the Bureau of Professional Regulation, the consumer fraud division of the Pinellas County Sheriff, the St. Petersburg Police, and guess who helped me?  NO ONE.  I had to hire a lawyer to get all this fixed as well as another contractor. 

The point is - if no one regulates the contractors who are licensed, what protection do consumers have?  None.  So these guys who were just trying to make a buck, are arrested for not having a license.  Yet those with a license are allowed to destroy people's homes with no regulation.  What's wrong with this picture?