How Do You Drop a Domestic Violence Charge in Florida?

If you are the victim of a Domestic Violence crime in Florida, can you drop the charges?

While the voice of the victim of a crime matters and is influential, it is the State Attorney’s (the prosecutor) determination on whether or not a criminal charge will ultimately be filed or if charges will be dropped.

So what can a victim do to drop domestic battery charges in Florida?

Domestic violence charges include any assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking, aggravated stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment, or any criminal offense resulting in physical injury or death of one family or household member by another family or household member.  Most often individuals are arrested for Domestic Battery.

Victims have legal rights in the State of Florida as established by Marsy’s Law which is a victim’s rights law.  Specifically, those victims rights are found in Article I (Declaration of Rights) Section 16 (Rights of accused and of victims) of the Florida Constitution and include:

Thus, even though the State Attorney has the final word, they must take into consideration the wishes of the victim in the case.

A victim can do the following to influence the State Attorney’s decision on whether or not to file a formal criminal charge (called filing an Information or a No Information):

The victim can make their wishes known in writing:

This can be accomplished by the victim filing a Request Not To Prosecute.  This form can be found at the Clerk of the Court’s office and may be filed in any domestic related criminal case.  The document states that the victim 1) Does not want the Defendant prosecuted; 2) Is not in fear of the Defendant; and 3) Desires contact with the Defendant.

The victim can speak with the State Attorney (prosecutor) and indicate that they do not want the Defendant prosecuted:

In most misdemeanor cases the State Attorney (prosecutor) will call the victim and ask them what happened and what they want to see happen with the case.  In felony cases the victim will be asked to come in person to an interview conducted by the prosecutor.  Here again, the prosector will ask the victim what happened and what outcome they desire in the matter.  Oftentimes a victim who states that nothing like the incident in question has ever happened before and that they do not desire prosecution may influence the prosecutor’s decision and the charges may be dropped.

The victim can hire an attorney to act as a Victim Advocate:

The State Attorney does not represent the victim per se.  The State Attorney represents the interests of the State of Florida.  The case is not The Victim vs. The Defendant - it is The State of Florida vs. The Defendant.  While the State Attorney takes into consideration the victim’s wishes, the prosecutor is not the victim’s attorney.  A victim in a criminal case has a right to hire their own attorney to represent and protect their interests.  Criminal defense attorneys are excellent choices for Victim Advocates in criminal cases as we understand exactly what happens in a criminal case.

Hire a criminal defense attorney to represent the Defendant:

If you are the victim and don’t want to prosecute, you should ensure that the Defendant has a criminal defense attorney.  The criminal defense attorney can interview you (the victim) and ensure that your point of view is properly relayed to the State Attorney.  Critical information you may have as the victim can also be used in defense of the Defendant.  An attorney can also assist with having contact granted between the Defendant and Alleged Victim by requesting a hearing to have the No Contact Order removed.

There are many factors that the State Attorney may take into account when determining whether or not they will drop charges in a domestic violence related case, these include:

Your best opportunity for success is to have an attorney advocating for you as early as possible.  With early intervention there is oftentimes an opportunity to have the charges dropped.

Speak to an experienced Domestic Violence Defense Attorney:

If you are the alleged victim and want to drop criminal charges in Florida, or if you have been arrested for Domestic Battery or any type of domestic violence related charge or if you are a victim and need a Victim Advocate, or if you have had an Injunction For Protection Against Domestic Violence filed against you (or if you are the Petitioner), call the Morris Law Firm at 727-388-4736, Option 1 for New Clients for a strategic review of your case and representation.  The Morris Law Firm handles misdemeanor and felony criminal cases throughout the Tampa Bay area and is dedicated to criminal defense.

Arrested During A Protest - For What?!

Protests have sparked at universities across the country over Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza strip.  These Pro-Palestinian protests have included university students and those not directly attached to the universities. The nature of the protests are different from university to university, but generally focus on demands that universities sever their ties with companies that support Israel.

Now university students and other individuals involved in the protests are being arrested across the country and in Florida including at University of South Florida in Tampa, Hillsborough County, but for what?

If you thought that the First Amendment protects any type of protest, you would be only partially correct. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances and other rights. While free speech is protected at public university campuses, it is not similarly protected at private universities where such private institutions are not bound by the First Amendment. Further, while the First Amendment protects free speech, it does not protect threats, inciting violence, discriminatory harassment, trespass, or other violations of the law even while an individual is exercising their right to freedom of speech.

Students and individuals in Florida and specifically in the Tampa Bay area have been arrested for failure to comply with university rules where police have been called in to enforce those rules. In some cases universities have ordered the protesters to disperse which has been met with passive and physical resistance leading to numerous criminal charges including but not limited to the following offenses:

Trespass After Warning can be charged when law enforcement has issued a warning to leave the premises and the individual refuses to leave. Resisting Arrest Without Violence (Obstruction) can include when an individual opposes an arrest by law enforcement by even the slightest incidence of bracing, pulling away, tensing up, or generally not cooperating during the arrest. Resisting Arrest With Violence and Battery On A Law Enforcement Officer can occur when an individual counters an arrest by touching a law enforcement officer against his or her will that can include pushing, striking, punching and even spitting on the officer. Criminal Mischief can be charged when an individual purposefully and maliciously damages the real or personal property of another. Disorderly Conduct can be charged when an individual negatively affects the peace and quiet of persons who may witness them, or engages in brawling or fighting, or engages in such conduct as to constitute a breach of the peace.

There are a number of defenses for those arrested at a protest. These defenses can include mistaken identity as police oftentimes make indiscriminate arrests in the heat of the moment. As well, lack of probable cause for an arrest may be argued if the facts and circumstances of the arrest do not add up to a reasonable person’s belief that a law has in fact been violated. Arguing selective prosecution may also be a negotiation tactic used with the State Attorney’s Office to resolve a criminal charge. As well, a lack of criminal intent (mens rea from Latin -"guilty mind") may be argued in addition to the lack of a prior criminal history.

This is not the first time protesters have been arrested in recent times. During the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, Corona Virus (COVID-19) protests, and abortion protests demonstrators were arrested.  This trend will continue as new social movements and political protests come to the fore front. If you or your university student have been arrested for a criminal offense of any type, call the Morris Law Firm at 727-388-4736, Option 1 for New Clients for a strategic review of your case and representation. The Morris Law Firm handles misdemeanor and felony criminal cases throughout the Tampa Bay area and is dedicated to criminal defense.

Seth Shapiro Awarded Avvo Clients' Choice for 2024

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - 

Seth Shapiro, Attorney at Law, Owner at the Morris Law Firm has been awarded the Avvo Clients’ Choice Award for 2024.  See Seth Shapiro’s Avvo Profile here.

The Avvo Clients’ Choice Award is presented each year to attorneys based on their positive relationships with their clients. Recipients of the Clients’ Choice Award are primarily evaluated on the strength of the attorney’s relationships with clients, and the number of positive attorney ratings left on Avvo by clients.  As the name implies, this award means that the recipients really are the “Clients’ Choice.”

Seth Shapiro has been given the Avvo Clients’ Choice Award in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Avvo is an online legal service marketplace that offers legal advice and provides ratings of legal professionals.  Approximately 97% of U.S. lawyers are rated by Avvo that allows prospective clients to research attorneys based on their reviews and ratings.

Contact the Morris Law Firm at (727) 388-4736 for a strategic review of your criminal case. Seth Shapiro represents clients who have been arrested or charged with a crime throughout the Tampa Bay Area, including Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

Using AI Can Get You And Your Kids Arrested

AI or Artificial Intelligence is a broad set of technologies that allow computers to do things that traditionally required human smarts and human effort.

AI is everywhere from smart assistants like Siri or Alexa, to recommendations you see online about movies or products you may like, as well as GPS navigation to get you from point A to point B in the most efficient way.

AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft’s Bing Chat are examples of generative AI where via chat prompts from the user they can generate written documents, poems, computer code, scripts, musical pieces, emails, and letters as well as answering questions in an informative way.

These same AI tools in addition to image specific tools such as Google’s Imagen, OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, and Midjourney can generate images, photographs and even videos based on a user’s text prompt.  In fact, the image for this article was generated by Google Gemini.

Herein lies the problem: These same AI image, photographic, and video generative tools can land you and your kids in jail.  How can this be possible?  Read on:

In what is thought to be the first criminal case of its kind, two teenage boys from Miami, Florida were arrested for creating and sharing nude images of their classmates (both male and female) that were generated using AI.  The teens were arrested under Florida Statue §836.13 - Promotion of an altered sexual depiction - which is a third-degree felony offense punishable by up to five (5) years in state prison.  Specifically, the law passed in 2022 states that, “A person who willfully and maliciously promotes any altered sexual depiction of an identifiable person, without the consent of the identifiable person, and who knows or reasonably should have known that such visual depiction was an altered sexual depiction, commits a felony of the third degree.”

Wired magazine reported that the boys created the images and shared them after which school officials were alerted.  The boys were then suspended from school and later charged with the felony offense.  It should be noted that in such cases the defendant could be charged with a separate felony count for each of the shared images, thus if there were for example 5 images created and shared without consent, the individual could be charged with 5 separate third-degree felony offenses each punishable by up to five (5) years in state prison.

Middle school and high school aged children are already familiar with AI tools.  Some schools and teachers even encourage responsible use of AI.  Thus, it is not hard to imagine that kids may experiment with AI and could create images that could end up being criminal and subject them to a Juvenile criminal arrest and a Juvenile criminal record.

Adults are also at risk of criminal charges stemming from illegal use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools.  From a simple practical joke to malicious AI generated revenge porn, if there is a lack of consent from the person in the images and those images are shared a felony offense or offenses may be charged.

The types of images described above are also known as Deepfake nudes - photos or videos created with AI that are generated of a person or oftentimes a celebrity naked or having sex.  These images are sometimes generated online with AI tools and then shared on social media platforms including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, TikTok, and online pornography websites.  Celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Sydney Sweeney have become victims of deepfake nude photos and videos.  Celebrities like Taylor Swift have also begun to sue platforms hosting the images exposing creators of these images not only to criminal charges but also to civil penalties.

AI has also been used to generate explicit images and videos of child victims.  Known as Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) whether it is authentic or created with AI it is still a crime under Florida law. 

It should be noted that Florida Statue §836.13 - Promotion of an altered sexual depiction stands separately and apart from Florida Statute §784.049 - Sexual cyberharassment - otherwise known as the “Revenge Porn Statute.”  Florida’s Revenge Porn Statute makes it a criminal offense to “publish to an Internet website or disseminate through electronic means to another person a sexually explicit image of a person that contains or conveys the personal identification information of the depicted person without the depicted person’s consent, contrary to the depicted person’s reasonable expectation that the image would remain private, for no legitimate purpose, with the intent of causing substantial emotional distress to the depicted person.”  Interestingly violation of the Revenge Porn Statute is a misdemeanor offense while a violation of the AI Porn Statute is a felony offense - thus under current Florida law it is a higher level offense to make and publish a generated image than it is to publish a real image.

If you or your child (Juvenile) have been arrested for a criminal offense of any type, call the Morris Law Firm at 727-388-4736, Option 1 for New Clients for a strategic review of your case and representation.  The Morris Law Firm handles misdemeanor and felony criminal cases throughout the Tampa Bay area and is dedicated to criminal defense.

Pinellas County Sheriff and Tampa Bay Law Enforcement Cracking Down On Spring Break and Saint Patrick's Day 2024

Law enforcement is cracking down on Spring Break like never before. Miami Beach is “Breaking Up With Spring Break” (see Miami Beach Is Breaking Up With Spring Break) with curfews, restricted beach access, bag checks, DUI checkpoints and strong police enforcement for drug possession and violent crimes (Battery).

Other Spring Break hotspots like Pinellas County and the entire Tampa Bay area have followed Miami Beach’s lead and have also begun to discourage Spring Breakers through heightened law enforcement.

At the beginning of Spring Break 2024 the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office conducted enhanced DUI enforcement through the use of a “DUI Wolf Pack.” “Wolf Pack” is the name the Pinellas County Sheriff’s office has given these DUI operations that include heightened traffic enforcement and additional DUI Units on the road.  The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office works together with other Tampa Bay law enforcement agencies including the Florida Highway Patrol, Largo Police Department, Pinellas Park Police Department, St. Petersburg Police Department, and the Clearwater Police Department to conduct the DUI enforcement operations.

The Spring Break 2024 DUI Wolf Pack operations that ran from March 8, 2024 to March 9, 2024 resulted in nearly 50 criminal charges including 34 DUI’s, 6 Drug Charges, and 2 Driving With License Suspended or Revoked (DWLSR) arrests along with over 200 traffic citations.

And that’s not all.  The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office will also be enhancing patrols during St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, 2024 to identify drivers under the influence of alcohol and/or any chemical or controlled substances.

Enforcement during Spring Break 2024 and St. Paddy's Day 2024 in Tampa Bay includes both DUI (Driving Under The Influence) and BUI (Boating Under The Influence) patrols as well as law enforcement looking for any other violations of the law.

If you were stopped and arrested during Spring Break 2024 or St. Paddy's Day 2024 you should consult with an attorney who can assess the facts and circumstances of your arrest and formulate a plan for your best defense.  We will review the facts and circumstances including the stop, field sobriety tests, breath test and other associated evidence in an effort to resolve your case successfully.  We have significant experience defending DUI and BUI cases including experience as a former State Attorney in Pinellas County and experience on the Pinellas County State Attorney’s DUI Manslaughter and Vehicular Homicide Squad.  Contact the Morris Law Firm at (727) 388-4736 for a strategic review of your DUI or BUI case. The Morris Law Firm  represents clients throughout the Tampa Bay Area, including Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

Morris Law Firm Attorneys rated one of the Top 3 Criminal Defense Lawyers in St. Petersburg!

Morris Law Firm Attorneys rated one of the Top 3 Criminal Defense Lawyers in St. Petersburg!

St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay, Florida

The Morris Law Firm’s attorneys Melinda Morris & Seth Shapiro have been rated one of the Top 3 Criminal Defense Lawyers in St. Petersburg by ThreeBestRated.com for 2024.

The Three Best Rated review team selected the Morris Law Firm for the accolade using a 50-Point Inspection that includes everything from checking reputation, history, complaints, ratings, satisfaction, and general excellence.

https://threebestrated.com/criminal-defense-lawyers-in-st-petersburg-fl

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