WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'RE ISSUED A NOTICE TO APPEAR FOR A CRIMINAL CHARGE IN CLEARWATER, FLORIDA

In some nonviolent misdemeanor criminal cases Florida law enforcement officers may give what is known as a Notice to Appear to a defendant rather than making a formal arrest. Although there's no arrest in the case Florida's archaic and chaotic criminal justice system treats every criminal charge as significant. It's important to understand that even in a criminal case that did not initially result in an arrest may be punished with jail time, probation or hefty fines. For example, lately the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, the Largo Police Department and the Clearwater Police Department are apt to give a Notice to Appear rather than making an arrest in possession of small amounts marijuana cases yet it's still important to make a priority of avoiding harsh punishments in drug cases as they can result in jail, probation and fines not to mention the loss of employment opportunities. 

In Pinellas County your Notice to Appear will give a date and time to appear for a hearing on the matter at a Courtroom at the Criminal Court Complex located on 49th Street in Clearwater, Florida. Failing to appear at that place and time will not only result in an arrest warrant being issued for you but will result in a new charge being filed, known as Failure to Appear, thus complicating any future efforts to reduce, dismiss or negotiate the original criminal charge.

The first hearing date given in the Notice to Appear is called an arraignment. At the arraignment the judge will make sure that the defendant understands the nature of the charged offense, make a finding for the record of how the defendant intends to plead and will ascertain whether the defendant has hired a defense lawyer. If defense counsel is retained before the arraignment the lawyer can file a notice of appearance with the Court so that the defendant need not attend the arraignment.

It's always important to hire your criminal defense lawyer as soon as possible even when there has not been an arrest. That way your lawyer will have time to investigate the facts of your case and find the best possible outcomes leveraging your judge's discretion to resolve your case so that it won't unduly affect your job status, your family life or your future.

HOW TO AVOID BEING BRANDED AS A CRIMINAL FOR LIFE AFTER A FLORIDA ARREST OR CRIMINAL CHARGE

 Clearwater Florida: The Rules are Different

A few years ago Florida spent millions of dollars to promote as its apt tourist slogan, "the rules are different here." For those who live in this sunshine paradise as well as the travelers who spend time at our beaches, bays, lakes, bike paths and rivers time spent here can be carefree and beautiful.

Yet that slogan also has deeper meaning in that Florida imprisons a greater portion of it's population than most any other state not in the deep south. Yes, without a doubt the rules are different in Florida. Its not unusual for Floridians and vacationers to find that their Florida dreams are ruined from criminal accusations. 

Florida is a state that harasses, arrests and incarcerates people for 'crimes' such as marijuana possession that would not even be illegal in many parts of the country. In fact in Florida it is still an illegal misdemeanor to co-habitate with someone who is not your wife or husband. 

Clearly, Florida prosecutors, sheriffs, deputies, officers and judges should prioritize crimes. They should use discretion with understanding and compassion. Technically criminal offenses of a nonviolent nature such as drug crimes, thefts, and trespass should be taken care of with a civil citation requiring a fine or community service for quick dismissal of the case without need of hiring a criminal defense lawyer. 

In some parts of the state such as Tallahassee experiments with civil citations program are being used effectively for victimless crimes such as petty theft. Having succeeded in not making criminals of large portions of the population the civil citation program should be promoted in every part of Florida rather than just the capital. But law enforcement and prosecutors prefer to make arrests so that they can justify their ever increasing budgets.

In Clearwater, Pinellas County, Florida alleged incidental bad behavior often results in an unnecessary arrest that forever brands the accused as a criminal even if the charges or dropped or the defendant is later found not guilty. For example, is it really reasonable to arrest someone for criminal mischief who is caught taking the air out of a friend's tire as a joke? Somehow police, prosecutors and judges have lost proportionality in arrests and sentencing. Until the criminal laws in Florida are changed a Clearwater criminal defense attorney often must be retained to bring some common sense to the prosecutors, the police and the judge.

STOP HARSH FEDERAL DRUG SENTENCING FOR HALLUCINOGENS THAT BENEFIT CANCER PATIENTS

Cary Grant: On Mushrooms & LSD  

Should outlawed drugs be legalized for medical use? New studies indicate that marijuana is not the only federally outlawed drug that has legitimate medical uses. 

Psilocybin is a natural hallucinogenic found in magic mushrooms, that was once used by native Americans in ancient mystical healing and hunting rituals. A stunning New Yorker article analyzes current medical studies at teaching hospitals such as John Hopkins that have found that psilocybin - one of the harshest penalized schedule one drugs under federal law - is very beneficial for many cancer patients facing death.

The drug temporarily reduces time and space while widening empathy thus allowing the user to forget his or her existence while expanding the definition of self as part of the universe absolved from the indignity of death. When administered by therapists patients unburden their minds of the dread of death and separation from those they love. Those given the drugs often find that it was one of the most comprehensive, important and memorable episodes of their lives on a par with the birth of a child. 

Patients make their way thru a classic 'psychedelic drug trip' not unlike those described by groups such as the Beatles in the turbulent sixties before psilocybin and other drugs such as LSD were designated as unlawful. During the sixties it wasn't only Lennon and McCartney who found that the drugs opened up their feelings, to love and to life, but so too many Hollywood elites such as the graying middle aged Cary Grant. He noted that taking LSD helped him understand that he was merely a child of the universe, albeit a debonair one, forever lifting the fear of death from his shoulders, even as Alfred Hitchcock's crop dusting plane flew closer.

So why were these drugs designated by Richard Nixon as unlawful federal schedule one drugs - the most dangerous category - on a par with trafficking in heroin under harsh federal sentencing guidelines? Peace, love, and conscience raising combined with licentiousness was feared as socially explosive. 

The tragic solution was to outlaw the drugs to dampen the cultural rebellion of the sixties. The world of Woodstock would become a crime. Those who delved into these chemicals would become criminals filling our prisons with the most nonviolent, antiwar members of society. It's time for the federal government to right these wrongs and legalize every drug that helps people.

HOW FLORIDA'S YOUTHFUL OFFENDER ACT HELPS JUVENILES AVOID HARSH DRUG SENTENCES

The trend of current criminal law acknowledges that whenever possible children charged with crime should not be treated as adults. The Florida Bar has been pushing for judges rather than prosecutors to determine when a child should be treated as an adult.

Free Our Gang from Prison

In Florida, juveniles whom prosecutors have charged as adults or young adults up to the age of twenty-two may be granted Youthful Offender status for a second chance. This may happen even over the objection of the State Attorney's Office if a judge can be persuaded with effective arguments to make a finding that a child  or young adult qualifies under the statute. 

A young person who pleads guilty under the Youthful Offender Statute may preempt the application of draconian sentencing laws in the following ways:

First, any harsh drug minimum mandatory sentences that would normally be triggered by conviction of a significant drug offense may be avoided. For example, in drug trafficking cases for drugs such as marijuana, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine or oxycodone the outrageous long term sentences typically of three, ten, fifteen and twenty-five years of prison may be avoided. 

Second, a young person charged with various firearm counts may be able to avoid specified minimum mandatory sentencing which a judge would otherwise not be able to sentence below. For example, in a case of possession of a sawed-off shotgun, a young defendant could avoid a minimum mandatory sentence of three years on the firearm count. 

Third, in cases of sexual battery, lewd and lascivious conduct or sexual assault, mandatory sex offender probation conditions can be avoided under the Youthful Offender statute. Many times young people are charged as adults even when the actual sexual conduct was consensual. For example, when a High School senior has consensual sexual relations with a freshman whose age falls just shy of recently amended Florida Romeo and Juliet statutes. Also, in a recent article Richard Sanders makes a compelling argument that imposing mandatory sex offender probation conditions is not required under the Youthful Offender Statute despite some poorly reasoned case law to the contrary.

Finally, the large fines typically imposed in significant criminal cases can also be avoided under the Florida Youthful Offender Statute if the presiding judge is persuaded that the young offender neither has the means nor ability to pay or that a fine would be detrimental to becoming a productive citizen in the future.


Young people perceive the passage of time differently than adults and imposing any jail on a young person is a much harsher punishment in actual deprivation than a similar punishment to an adult. Further, as psychiatrists have long noted and as the U.S. Supreme Court has recently come to realize, the brain functioning properties of children may them more likely to do foolish things, to not think thru things as an adult would and to not be as responsible as an adult might be.

Under Chapter 958 of the Florida Statutes the Court merely needs to make a finding that a qualifying defendant would benefit from a set of sanctions which are likely to improve his or her "... chances of correction and successful return to the community." This, of course, should be the aim of every judge in every criminal case. Yet too often our best judges have their decision making tied by legal restrictions and are kept from doing their most important job, which is constructing a sentence that punishes as little as possible while still deterring crime. The goal of a good judge is to sentence is such a way that a defendant does not become a ward of the state, but instead becomes a productive, law-abiding citizen.

NEW U.S. FOCUS ON STEROID ABUSE AS FEDERAL DRUG ARRESTS SURGE FOR STEROID USE, SALE OR POSSESSION

Could an unintended consequence of Attorney General Holder's memorandum for more lenient marijuana enforcement be stricter enforcement of federal steroid laws by federal and state law enforcement? 

Since as many as six million Americans use steroids, pushing for more arrests of steroid users could be catastrophic for unsuspecting users many of whom have no idea that the Government classifies steroids with hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine and LSD with equivalent harsh federal drug trafficking sentencing for relatively small quantities.


Not only do Federal Drug Enforcement Agents appear to be focusing on making more arrests for steroid users, but in the Middle District of Florida located in Tampa Bay numerous arrests are being made by local and state police officers which are then being pursued in federal court rather than in state court. Pushing the cases into federal court garners the risk of much more prison time if a Defendant is convicted. With steroids the actual weight of the drug is not as important as the number of 'units' one is accused of possessing, this can make for unfair sentencing results when the drugs are diluted. Therefore, it's important to take urgent action if one is arrested for steroid possession or for steroid trafficking.

Reducing the damage of a federal arrest may be alleviated if the Government agrees to a timely Waiver of Indictment which allows a federal case to be filed with an information rather than by a grand jury indictment. When the Government files an information limiting the scope of the Defendant's knowledge or the sheer amount of the steroids the Defendant may have sold or possessed, this can be useful in avoiding minimum mandatory sentences under the trafficking laws especially in cases where steroids have been found incident to a search warrant, but law enforcement has evidence of long term use, buys or sales of steroids. 

Often an early agreement on the filing of an information rather than an indictment from a grand jury has an addition benefit in that the Government also binds itself to an additional agreement that Government won't object to allow the Defendant to be free on a bond. This is useful in achieving a successful Federal bond, bail and detention strategy. After every Federal arrest a Federal Magistrate determines whether a Defendant should be free on bond. Factors the Judge looks to include the Defendant's ties to the community and whether the Defendant is a threat to the community. Unfortunately under federal law when a grand jury indicts a person for trafficking in drugs, the presumption is that the Defendant is a threat to the community and therefore must remain incarcerated until the case is resolved.

So there's much more likelihood that the Federal Magistrate will agree to a bond when an agreement has reached with prosecutors that allows for a Waiver of Indictment and the avoidance of a trafficking charge. The bond gives security to the court that the Defendant can remain free and working to support his family while the case moves forward. In some cases the Magistrate may even allow a signature bond, which is one without direct security other than the signature of the Defendant promising to pay in the future whatever amount the Federal Magistrate believes will prompt the Defendant to attend each court hearing.

NONVIOLENT DRUG OFFENDERS IN US & FLORIDA PRISONS SHOULD BE RELEASED AS MINIMUM MANDATORY SENTENCING IS UNFAIR & UNAMERICAN

Our prisons are filled with people who shouldn't be there.  As this blog has noted minimum mandatory drug sentencing destroys more lives than do the drugs that are outlawed. And the extraordinary sentences served by nonviolent drug offenders have undermined American claims that our system of justice is fair and impartial, especially in Florida where one can be convicted without knowledge of drugs. Those involved in the criminal justice system such as prosecutors, judges and even Clearwater Criminal Defense Lawyers find that long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are no longer extraordinary in a grinding process that continues to destroy lives at a blinding pace.

Van Gogh, The Prison Courtyard

 Today the NYT notes a recent Justice Department report that "public safety can be maximized without maximizing prison population." Who knew? It's a little late for the 218, 000 federal prisoners waiting for a justice system to catch up to common sense. And too bad for the many prisoners held in Tampa Bay, Florida for nonviolent drug crimes. 


Your Clearwater Drug Defense Attorney recommends the following actions:

• The minimum mandatory sentence laws should either be abolished or be applicable only for violent crimes.
• By law prosecutors should be given less discretion in making charging decisions that force plea agreements and high sentences because of the fear that other charges will be added to an indictment or charging information.
• Our Judges need to be given more discretion to reduce minimum mandatory sentences.
• The Federal Bureau of Prisons should be given more incentives and direction to allow old prisoners, sick prisoners and nonviolent drug prisoners out of prison where there is little likelihood of recidivism without the need for Court Hearings unless either party objects to a reduction of sentence.

NEW DRUG TEN TIMES STRONGER THAN HYDROCONE (aka VICODIN) WILL SOON INVADE & DESTROY LIVES IN CLEARWATER FLORIDA

Four international pharmaceutical companies are developing drugs that will for the first time make the most addictive ingredient in the drug hydrocodone available in a pure form, making the risk of addiction to Tampa & Pinellas Floridians that much greater, according to a recent article in the British press, which also states that the companies plan to make a pain killer called Zohydro which will be ten times stronger than vicodin. Will there now be ten times more arrests in Clearwater, St. Petersburg & Tampa that a Pinellas Drug Attorney will need to clean up in the arbitrary hope that law enforcement doesn't destroy more lives than the drugs?
Here's an excerpt from the British News Article:

Between 2003 and 2007 in the state of Florida alone, hydrocodone caused 910 deaths and contributed to 1,803 others.......Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing told CBS: 'You've got a person on your product for life, and a doctor's got a patient who's never going to miss an appointment, because if they did and they didn't get their prescription, they would feel very sick...it's a terrific business model..."
Pinellas County has an effective drug court discussed in earlier blog entries with other solutions or decriminalization. The Courts are already overwhelmed with Defendants who are addicted because of misuse and abuse of the drugs being shoveled in their direction by the pharmeceutical companies. 

Haven't the drugs already available to Floridians destroyed enough lives? The companies insist that the patients can be monitored more closely in the future to avoid drug addiction. How? Look at the recent efforts by Floridian law enforcement to clamp down on prescription fraud and Pinellas Pain Doctors who give inappropriate prescriptions even at current lower levels of drug effectiveness. 
Ever harsher drug laws are not the answer. Nor is it the answer for companies to knowingly make these drugs ever more addictive and available. The only priority of the pharmaceutical companies is to make more money.

A painting of a number of pleasantly satisfied Pharmaceutical Reps at a Tampa Bay Conference.

Rembrandt The Anatomy Lesson, 1662

USED VAN COMES 'FULLY LOADED' - BOUGHT FOR $14,000 HAS STASH OF $500,000 WORTH OF COCAINE FOUND BY MECHANIC WHEN BREAKS ARE FIXED - IN FLORIDA LACK OF KNOWLEDGE WOULD NOT STOP PROSECUTION

A psychologist in California thought he had a great deal on a used van at $14,000. But 14 months later when he had his breaks fixed the mechanic found over half a million dollars of Cocaine. "My hands went numb," he said.
He's a lucky man. He's lucky that the drug cartel missing the cocaine didn't find him, then lead him toward a life ending accident.  


And he's especially lucky he doesn't live in Florida. In Florida, Knowledge of the Cocaine is not required for arrest, prosecution and conviction of Trafficking in Cocaine. 
In Florida the innocent psychologist could be subjected to life with a 15 year Minimum Mandatory prison sentence, despite a Federal Judge making a finding that the law violates the United States Constitution. Drug Law Unconstitutional

EXCERPT FROM THE MERCURY NEWS: "This insulation isn't supposed to be here," the mechanic said, digging behind the panel. But it soon became clear that the tablet-sized objects wrapped in purple and clear cellophane weren't installed by the manufacturer. "I'm, like, dumbfounded," said Preston, who works at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. "Honest to God, my hands went numb." Police quickly arrived and found 14 packages of cocaine hidden in the doors. After impounding the van for closer examination, they found five more above the back wheels, Preston said. "They told me, 'You're so lucky, you'd be in jail for the rest of your life if you got searched in a traffic stop and they found this.' " But they also told him something chilling: Take the van back in to the repair shop to check for tracking devices because somebody is probably looking for it. Then get rid of it. When Preston tried to return the coke-mobile to Thrifty Car Sales this summer for one without drugs, he said a manager was anything but solicitous. She told him he could trade in the van, but only for the current Blue Book value -- about $4,000 less by his estimation than he originally paid. He had put about 6,000 miles on the van. Chrysler van comes fully loaded -- cocaine included - San Jose Mercury News Criminal Defense Attorney and Trial Lawyer for Drug Crimes & DUI in Clearwater, FL Florida - Drug Laws Ruled Unconstitutional - NYTimes.com State drug trafficking laws ruled unconstitutional | ruled, state, city - The News Herald Tampa Bay Police ask your help in finding the original owners of this Vehicle: Italy: Sicilian working cart,1890.

BRITISH TEENAGER GRIMLY FACES LIFE IN FLORIDA PRISON - AMERICA'S WAR ON DRUGS DESTROYS ANOTHER LIFE

Florida's harsh Drug Laws and outrageous penalties are making headlines in Britain. The latest case involves a girl who just turned 18 a few days after her arrest for bringing in cocaine as a clueless mule. Mercy? Justice? Leniency? 
Of course not, this is Florida, where even your favorite Clearwater Drug Attorney never fails to be amazed and astonished that Prosecutors - not impartial Judges - ultimately determine the length of drug sentencing by how the Prosecution initially files the charge. 
Do the Prosecutors believe that the Juvenile did this on her own? Clearly she was a witless drug mule. Incredibly, the girl would face less time if accused of a murder in the cracked sentencing structure of the State of Florida.
Our Beautiful Sunshine State has politicized prosecutors who determined that Justice could best be served by treating the girl as an adult although she was just a mule and although she was a minor at the time of the crime. She faces up to life in prison with a 15 year Mandatory Minimum Sentence in Florida.


Here's are excerpts from the recent article from England's Daily Telegraph:

Niles, a student, told police she did not know what drug she was carrying but suspected she was involved in some illegal activity, according to an arrest report. The cocaine was hidden in cake mix boxes found in her luggage.

Miami-Dade detective Nubia Azrak wrote that Niles "suspected that the activity she was involved in was suspicious but she did not question it".Police said the teen, who is from London, was picked for screening by customs agents. A police source said: "She is a classic drug mule who thought she could easily bring the drugs through an airport undetected."

Prosecutors said Niles was a "poster child" for how easily drug smugglers can corrupt young people.

In a follow up the Telegraph later reported: Her mother Sonia said:"She was stitched up. She a teenager who fell into a trap." Miami Judge Jose Fernandez set Niles' bail at $505,000 and her trial for February 6, 2012
British teenager caught smuggling 30lbs of cocaine into America - Telegraph
Attorney for Juvenile Pinellas County Florida
The American War on Drugs - The Becker-Posner Blog
Global war on drugs has failed,' key panel says - US news - Crime & courts - msnbc.com
Judge Napolitano - The War on Drugs has been a Disaster
British teen ‘poster child’ for American drugs war faces life in jail | Parent Pages
London teenager accused of cocaine smuggling 
London teenager accused of cocaine smuggling in US - Americas - World - The Independent
Pictures from Alcohol Prohibition | StoptheDrugWar.org

A recent photograph shows the Mayor of Miami with Law Enforcement destroying illicit drugs.

Prohibition in the United States (sometimes referred to as the Noble Experiment) was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of intoxicating liquors, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the 18th amendment to the Constitution. As with the modern "War on Drugs" the law destroyed more lives than the intoxicants ever could.

FEDERAL COURT FINDS FLORIDA'S DRUG LAWS UNCONSTITUTIONAL WILL STATE JUDGES AGREE?

Will Florida's 6th Circuit Judges in Pinellas, Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Largo Florida have the political courage to follow Judge Scriven's recent well reasoned federal decision? Miami Judges are finding Florida Drug laws unconstitutional, but the consequences for their decisions are less severe than in Tampa Bay.  So the question might be better urged as must the judges follow the law as given by the Federal Judge? The answer will come from how the Supreme Court of Florida interprets Florida Drug law.

The applicability of Judge Scriven's decision in Shelton -- that the Fla Drug statute is unconstitutional on its face -- cannot be overstated -- for state and federal cases. Some of you that you have raised this issue before and are glad for the opportunity of raising it again while working on ideas for its application in federal cases -- which regularly apply enhancements based on prior Florida drug convictions. 

Here are some interesting ideas about the federal ruling finding Florida's drug laws unconstitutional:

The court noted that no other strict liability statute carrying the penalties of the magnitude of § 893.13 has been upheld under federal law... the court ruled that § 893.13 regulates inherently innocent conduct because it does not require even a minimal showing that the Defendant knew he was delivering any illicit substance as an element of the offense charged. The court explained that there is along tradition of lawful delivery and transfer of containers that might contain substances – carrying luggage on and off public transportation, bags in and out of stores, carrying book bags and purses, transporting boxes via commercial transportation. 

The bag is then given to another for safekeeping. Caught in the act, the hapless victim is guilty based upon the only two elements of the statue: delivery (actual, constructive, or attempted),and the elicit nature of substance. The victim would be faced with the Hobson’s choice of pleading guilty or going to trial where he is presumed guilty because he is in fact guilty of two elements. He must then prove his innocence for lack of knowledge against the permissive presumption the statute imposed that he does in fact have guilty knowledge. Such an outcome is not countenanced under applicable constitutional proscriptions.

What this boils down for Clearwater Federal Defense Lawyers is that Judge Scriven believes Florida law allows a Defendant to be prosecuted and found guilty of possession of drugs even if the Defendant has no knowledge of the drugs.  Knowledge is the linchpin of any criminal act. How can someone be guilty of possessing drugs unless there's proof the person knew of the drugs and without knowledge how could there be real possession?