Recent Blog Posts
The Drug Sting in the Glove Box
For people who do not live in Florida, visiting the theme parks of Orlando is a once in a lifetime experience. The Disney World you visit as an adult when you are an adult is every bit as gleefully overstimulating as you imagined it would be when you were a child. For Floridians, the… Read More »
You Can Tell Your Lawyer the Whole Truth During Your Drug Case
The surest way to avoid incriminating yourself is to exercise your right to remain silent. By not testifying in your own case, or by pleading the Fifth Amendment, you are providing the prosecution fewer opportunities to prove your guilt, which they must do thoroughly in order to get the jury to vote to convict… Read More »
Lack of Criminal Intent in Drug Cases
When police conduct a traffic stop and find a baggie of white powder in your car, leading you to get charged with drug possession, you can’t argue that it is a mistaken identity, that the person who was behind the wheel of the car where the drugs were found and whose name and picture… Read More »
Probable Cause Hearings in Florida Drug Cases
Talking privately with a criminal defense lawyer about your pending criminal case is your legal right. Often, your lawyer will say something during that first meeting that puts you at ease and assures you that the worst-case scenario, in which you spend months in county jail or years in prison, will not come true. … Read More »
Don’t Let the Reid Technique Turn Your Drug-Fueled Adventure Into a Kafkaesque Nightmare
As its name suggests, the criminal justice system is supposed to intervene when police and prosecutors behave unfairly or fail to respect the rights of defendants. This is why the courts exclude pieces of evidence that police obtained illegally, and even dismiss the charges if the remaining evidence is not enough to build a… Read More »
Could Your Florida Drug Case End in a Mistrial?
One of the rights of defendants in criminal cases is the right to a fair trial, which means that the trial takes place without unnecessary delays, the outcome is decided by unbiased jurors, and unless there is a compelling reason to conduct the trial in private, it is open to the public. If you… Read More »
Eyewitness Testimony Isn’t as Incriminating as You Think
The old saying goes that you should believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. Therefore, hearsay evidence is not admissible in court. If your neighbor says that another neighbor claims to have seen you hours before your arrest and that you appeared to be under the influence of drugs,… Read More »
Martin County Sheriff’s Deputies Seize 10,000 Fentanyl Pills in Drug Bust
The scary thing about fentanyl is that even a tiny amount can kill, and even scarier than that is that many victims of fentanyl overdose were not even aware that the drugs they were consuming contained fentanyl. Instead, the victims though that the white powder they purchased on the street was cocaine or methamphetamine,… Read More »
Can You Use an Alibi Defense in a Drug Case?
Somewhere in the living room of a rented single-family home in Florida, a McMansion turned drug den, a group of people are sitting on couches around a coffee table, passing around a joint even though each of them is already high on a unique combination of substances. Some of the participants are lifelong friends,… Read More »
Drug Court Is Not a “Get Out of Jail Free” Card
Drug courts are a welcome contribution to criminal justice reform, and they are present in all of Florida’s most populous metropolitan areas. If you get arrested for drug possession and the judge approves you for participation in drug court, you can emerge from the experience without a criminal conviction on your record if you… Read More »