Recent Blog Posts
Miami-Dade School Board Pays Settlement To Sexual Assault Victims As Former Teacher Serves Prison Sentence
Movies and TV shows make high school look glamorous, but no matter how old you are, you remember the awkwardness, the conflicts with your parents, and the worries about the future. Middle school, by contrast, is such a miserable experience that no amount of Hollywood glitz can mask its stench, and that’s only if… Read More »
Judge Orders New Trial In Sweepstakes Case Because Prosecutors Ordered Defendant Who Pleaded Guilty To Spy On His Co-Defendants
One of the reasons that it is important to hire a defense lawyer for a criminal case and to work closely with your defense lawyer is that prosecutors will try to mess with your mind. During the investigation, representatives of the state tell you all kinds of things, with the hope that you will… Read More »
Three Arrested In Coconut Grove Quitclaim Fraud Scheme
Coconut Grove is the oldest continuous neighborhood in Miami, and some of the families there have lived there for generations. Shirley Gibson’s grandfather immigrated to Florida in 1904 and settled in Coconut Grove, and her family still owns the land he bought; she inherited two vacant lots from her father Clarence when he died… Read More »
Two South Florida Men Arrested For Trafficking Opioids On The Darknet
The darknet has emboldened participants in the illegal drug trade. When you venture into the dark corners of the Internet that search engines cannot access, the photo-realistic graphics are absent, but so is the feeling that anyone can find out anything about anyone with just a few clicks. It is a feeling of online… Read More »
Recreational DNA Testing Leads To 2021 Arrest In 2007 Rape Case
Getting a DNA test for genealogy purposes sounds like a lot more fun than it actually is. On the one hand, it is a wonder that you can find out so much about a person’s ancestry from a simple blood test or cheek swab; consumer DNA testing (as opposed to court-ordered or forensic DNA… Read More »
Broward Man Sentenced To Ten Years For Possession Of Child Exploitative Material
Sexual activity between consenting adults is legal, and as long as the World Wide Web has existed, online communication has often been synonymous with online communication about sex. Not long after social networking sites appeared, people began to use them to flirt, to ogle, and otherwise to discuss sex. If you are truly ancient,… Read More »
Former Procurement Director Of Broward Health Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy To Commit Money Laundering
Hospital bills are mind-bogglingly expensive, and the more you think about them, the more confusing the math gets. Patients pay what they can, collection agencies buy unpaid hospital debts, insurance companies negotiate about prices, leading to write-offs of part of the sticker price of services rendered, and those are just the parts that are… Read More »
Hialeah Mother And Son Accused Of Defrauding Elderly Relative Out Of His Life’s Savings
The COVID-19 pandemic was terrifying for elderly Floridians and their families. Several generations of retirees have placed their hopes on retiring to Florida, and saving their money toward that purpose, so that they can enjoy walks on the beach and frequent visits from family members. The pandemic threw all of those plans into disarray. … Read More »
BSO Supervisor Arrested On Allegations Of Workers’ Compensation Fraud
The people who answer the phone when you call 911 have a responsibility to take all calls seriously. No matter how strange the emergency that the caller is describing, the dispatchers must send first responders to your location until it becomes clear that there is no emergency. (For this reason, making fraudulent calls to… Read More »
Broward Gastroenterologist Faces Charges For Sending Sexually Explicit Messages To Teens
In the past year, people who have never worked in the medical profession have spent more time than ever before thinking about how doctors spend their time. Since last spring, the medical profession has mobilized its resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and its efforts have paid off to such an extent that summer… Read More »
Miami-Dade Police Lieutenant Faces Sexual Battery Charges For Alleged Attack On Colleague At Police Officers’ Convention
The terms assault and battery almost always occur together when they occur in ordinary speech that most people are not aware of the difference. In the context of sexual assault and sexual battery, sexual battery is the more serious charge of the two. The difference between the two charges is whether physical force is… Read More »
Case Against Broward Doctor Accused Of Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Images Prompts Proposed Changes To Law
The law says that you are innocent until proven guilty, so what happens between the time that you are arrested and the time of your trial, when a jury decides the verdict? It depends on how dangerous the judge thinks you are. Some people stay in jail, and if they are found guilty, the… Read More »
Fort Myers Woman Pleads Guilty To Financial Aid Fraud For Operating Phony Career Institute
People often say that college is a scam, but what they really mean is that it is prohibitively expensive, or perhaps they are complaining that college admissions recruiters often promise that their university offers a much faster and more direct route to a lucrative career than it actually does. Both of those criticisms are… Read More »
The Man Who Lived In Florida For Three Decades Under A Stolen Identity
Young Floridians know that Florida is full of old people, most of whom do not seem very interesting. They also know that a lot of stuff happened in Florida in the 80s, and it involved cocaine. Of course, every mild-mannered retiree in Florida has a backstory, and this year, the truth came out about… Read More »
Central Florida Couple With Conspiracy To Obtain More Than $1 Million In COVID-19 Relief Funds Through Fraudulent Means
Almost everyone who has ever had a Facebook account has posted photos that they thought made them look impressive and cool, only to take them down later once they realized that the photos cast them in a negative light, whether they were simply physically unflattering or whether they presented the subject as foolish, culturally… Read More »
Palm Beach County Teacher Arrested On Charges Of Soliciting A Young Child
Before there was Facebook and back when Amazon only sold books, the frugal and entrepreneurial people of major American cities could turn to Craigslist to help them find gently used items at affordable prices and to look for opportunities for short-term and long-term employment. Likewise, before Tinder and its ilk, Craigslist was a place… Read More »
A Country Boy’s Journey To A Heroic Medical Career, The Fort Lauderdale Party Scene, And Then Prison
Before Carlton Cash received his sentence after pleading guilty to drug dealing charges, his lawyer said that Cash was not a “typical defendant,” but no one is. Many thousands of people get arrested on drug charges in Florida each year, and none of them fits the caricatured profile of the scary monster who wants… Read More »
Treasure Coast Man Gets 15-Year Sentence for Defrauding Banks Out of $40 Million
Pretending to be rich is nothing new, and some people are convincing enough to keep the fraud going for several years. Anna Sorokin pretending to be a German heiress for several years, funding her lavish lifestyle with promises to pay later. Christian Gerhartsreiter convinced everyone, including his own wife, that he was an heir… Read More »
Bruce and Shawn Chait, the Real Estate Developers Who Pleaded Guilty to Bribing County Officials, Now Face Charges of Extortion
Any Floridian who has read the local news, and any resident of the 49 states who has read a Carl Hiaasen novel, can connect the dots when presented with the keywords “golf course,” “real estate development,” “Florida,” and “corruption.” Several years ago, a startling number of officials in the county government faced criminal charges… Read More »
A Broward County Man Just Got a Prison Sentence for Underreporting His Income to the IRS, but Should You Worry About Your Tax Return Misdeeds?
Tax evasion is a crime, and we can all think of famous instances where people got into major legal trouble for not paying the taxes the IRS claims they owe. You probably know the story of how Al Capone went to prison not for illegal sale of alcoholic beverages or for his alleged connections… Read More »
