Category Archives: Criminal Defense
Chronically Online in Furtherance of a Crime
Let us count the ways that social media can get you into trouble. Content creators and algorithm designers have learned to target everyone’s worst nature, to make you feel angry, insecure, lonely, paranoid, and utterly convinced of your poorly thought-out ideas. Two friends whose ostensibly harmless clicks led them down rabbit holes of differing… Read More »
False Personation Charges
If you want evidence that people no longer see the world in terms of clearly defined good guys and bad guys, look at popular culture marketed toward young people. Antiheroes rule the day, everywhere from superhero movies to pro wrestling. Batman, even in his gravelly voiced permutation in the Lego Batman Movie, has always… Read More »
Crimes Against Crocodilians
In many parts of the country, the only thing you have to fear if you swim in a river or lake, or if your canoe capsizes, is a brain-eating amoeba, and while primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) infections are rare, only a few people have ever survived them. If you enter unchlorinated freshwater in Florida,… Read More »
Do Anonymous Web Communications Make for Compelling Evidence?
For every techno-optimist out there, there is someone else who is pondering how much simpler forensic science used to be before the Internet became a ubiquitous presence in the devices that almost every man, woman, and child in developed countries possesses. Remember when you could solve murder cases by testing DNA found at the… Read More »
Casting Doubt on Informant Testimony
It is easy to say, from your current position, that you would never act as a police informant, but it is less easy to know what you would do if the prosecutors had an informant lined up to testify at your trial about what you said to him about illegal drugs, plus a recording… Read More »
Criminal Cases Involving Hit and Run
Now that generative AI chatbots are having their 15 minutes of fame these days, people are asking them questions and getting neat, grammatically correct responses, perhaps a little bit too neat. If you ask Chat GPT or another one of the leading bots what happens after a hit and run accident, it will probably… Read More »
Florida’s Youthful Offender Act Isn’t Just for Minors
Laws should be specific enough to provide guidance and avoid confusion, but also sufficiently open to interpretation to account for the fact that every case is unique. Likewise, the more you try to pinpoint the exact moment when childhood ends and adulthood begins, the more difficult it becomes. On your 18th birthday, you can… Read More »
Anonymous Tips and Florida Criminal Cases
In September 2025, police arrested 19 defendants in Boynton Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and other locations in South Florida as the result of an investigation by the Boynton Beach Police Department, known as Operation Trackside. In making the arrests, they confiscated more than five kilograms of drug powders, most of which were cocaine and fentanyl,… Read More »
New Hope for Wrongfully Convicted People
If you appeal your conviction and the court overturns it on appeal, you feel like you have won the grand prize. Even more thrilling are the rare situations where the state realizes its own mistake and owns up to it on its own initiative. Going home to your family and friends after serving a… Read More »
Sixth Amendment Hearings
In fictional stories about criminal cases, the climactic scene usually occurs during the defendant’s trial. Statements made by the attorneys and witnesses of the prosecution and defense surprise the audience, even though they do not surprise the judge or the defendant. In real life, court dates other than the trial have just as big… Read More »
Flysky, the Newest Veterinary Drug in Florida
It is not always obvious from the way the people of South Florida relentlessly chase ostentation, but a lot of people agree that the true key to happiness is to find something inexpensive that cheers you up and make it your constant companion. It doesn’t cost much to get and keep a pet dog… Read More »
What Is Considered Inadmissible Evidence?
In highly publicized trials, every piece of evidence presented by the prosecution or defense is a surprise to the readers or the television audience. You might wonder how, in the video footage or the courtroom sketches, the judge sits expressionless. Perhaps a flawless poker face is part of the judge’s job description; maybe this… Read More »
Is Hearsay Evidence Admissible in Criminal Court?
You know the old saying about how you should believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. Think about all the terrible things people say about each other all day long. Someone does a silly dance, and someone else films it and posts it on YouTube, and soon everyone in… Read More »
Don’t Be a Fugitive From Justice
News stories about fugitives are exhilarating, and fictional stories about them are doubly so. Depending on how the storyteller presents the events, you might put yourself in the place of the police pursuing the fugitive, or you might put yourself in the place of the fugitive, knowing that he is innocent or that, even… Read More »
What To Know About Problem Solving Courts
People might tell you that the purpose of the criminal courts is not to punish people, but it does not feel that way when you are facing charges that can result in monetary fines, probation, or even prison time. Likewise, no one falls for it when prisons bear signs with euphemisms like “correctional facility.”… Read More »
What You Should Know About Traffic Crimes In Miami
A major part of the fun of living in Florida is bending the rules of the road. Yes, everyone knows that it is dangerous to drive at 90 miles per hour, but who are you harming if it is 4:00 in the morning, and the only witnesses to your impressive speed are the iguanas… Read More »
Everything You Emote Can and Will Be Used Against You
Interpreting someone else’s emotional affect is more difficult than it looks. How many times have you understood someone’s words but misinterpreted the person’s facial expression or vocal intonation? The emotional expressiveness of witnesses can influence jurors’ votes; only 12 people know exactly what happens in each deliberation room, but it stands to reason that… Read More »
What To Do When Facing Money Laundering Charges
Three individuals now face up to 30 years in federal prison after being charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. The case involved a stolen Treasury check worth over $1 million, fraudulent identities, and the establishment of illegitimate bank accounts. This high-profile case demonstrates the substantial resources that federal… Read More »
Socioeconomic Class and Criminal Defense Cases
It is not just your imagination that the criminal justice system treats people differently depending on their background. Jurors are more likely to look at a teenager from the wrong side of the tracks who got charged with reckless driving and drug possession as a lowlife who was fortunate enough to get caught before… Read More »
Classical Rhetoric in Florida Criminal Defense Cases
Math and science nerds may get bullied, but humanities nerds are at the bottom of the social ladder in high school. When your criminal defense lawyer was in high school, the math and science nerds taunted her about the fact that they would get careers where they could make so much money that they… Read More »
