Articles Posted in Domestic Violence

Glittering lights may adorn the outside of many homes this time of year.

Too often though, that facade betrays the darker reality of what is occurring behind closed doors.

There is no question that the number of domestic violence charges in Browardand elsewhere spike during the holiday season. Contributing factors include financial pressures, unrealistic expectations and often, the increased consumption of alcohol. Also during this time, couples who might be on the brink of breaking up will try to hold it together through the first of the year – only to find tensions rise to the breaking point and beyond.
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Years ago, a bad break-up might linger in your mind for a few weeks or months, giving way to the occasional pang of rejection or regret only every so often.

Even if forgetting wasn’t fully possible, it was easier back then to let go.

Our Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyers know it’s much tougher these days because updates on virtually anyone’s ex are available with just a few clicks. Social media connections are such that it may seem you are never truly able to disconnect and move on. This is compounded by the fact that we all have such instantaneous access to voice our immediate anger and frustrations – in some cases very publicly. It’s no wonder that cases of harassment and aggravated stalking have risen in recent years.
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An argument over a pot-gobbling pooch ended with a South Florida model in handcuffs after telling deputies her boyfriend had repeatedly walked into the knife in her hand.

The 26-year-old was arrested for domestic battery in Dania Beach after responding deputies took note of a couple small knife cuts to the boyfriend’s head and face and another cut across his hand. He was not seriously injured and did not require hospitalization.

Although reporters described the judge as “bemused” as he read aloud the incident report before the court during the defendant’s first appearance, a charge of domestic battery is no laughing matter.
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A Florida appellate court has ruled that a woman who received two decades behind bars for firing a warning shot at her reportedly abusive husband – a shot that injured no one – is entitled to a new trial.

Our domestic violence defense attorneys in Fort Lauderdale are familiar with the case, in which the defendant was given a mandatory 20-year sentence by a reluctant judge after a conviction on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The appellate court’s decision in Alexander v. State of Florida hinged on the fact that the jury had been improperly instructed with regard to the issue of self-defense. Prior to the conviction, the jury had been told that in order for her to claim self-defense, she would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she believed her husband was about to seriously harm her or her children, who were present in the home.
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A 25-year-old man from Coconut Creek has been arrested for stalking pro-golfer Morgan Pressel – the third time since 2009 that he’s been arrested for the same offense. He’s been arrested on at least four other occasions since 2007 for trespassing and contempt of court.

Authorities say the defendant began harassing Pressel via Twitter several days before he attempted to gain access to the gated community where she lives, telling a security guard that he was her boyfriend. The security guard, aware of the restraining order, contacted sheriff’s deputies. At the time of his arrest, he was subject to an order of protection mandating he stay at least 500 feet from her and her home.

The case was made particularly noteworthy because of the celebrity element. It’s fairly obvious when hearing the defendant’s explanation (that another professional golfer, Jack Nicklaus, and the CIA had instructed him to go to Pressel’s home) that there is something amiss. However, our Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyers know that the majority of stalking arrests in Florida stem from domestic disputes or between individuals who actually know one another.
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The 31-year-old mother of a toddler and 11-year-old twins had never before been arrested.

She had never intended for anyone to get hurt.

In fact, no one was hurt when she fired a warning shot into a wall three years ago to scare her husband, whom she felt was physically threatening her, into backing off.

And yet, our Fort Lauderdale domestic violence defense lawyers have learned, she has been slapped with a 20-year prison sentence.

This is a miscarriage of justice, and it highlights some of the deep flaws in the state’s minimum mandatory sentencing laws, which allow for little to no judicial discretion if a person is convicted.

Cases like this show why it’s so important to hire a good lawyer from the very beginning of a case, and hopefully help you avoid a conviction and ultimately a tragic outcome.

The woman was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. According to Florida Statute 784.021, an aggravated assault is an assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill or with intent to commit a felony. It’s a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. However, because she fired a gun while committing a felony, it is boosted the penalty. Under the state’s mandatory minimum gun laws, a 20-year sentence was required.

The judge in this case refused to allow the defendant to invoke the state’s “Stand Your Ground” defense law, which would have given her the opportunity to argue self defense.

Critics are decrying the assertion that racism may be at play here.

In this case, the defendant was a young black woman who had a master’s degree and no criminal record. Her husband, however, reportedly had a history of abuse. The gun was legally registered and owned. She had a restraining order against him, even though she’d only had a child with him less than two weeks earlier. She had only gone to the home to retrieve her belongings. Even her estranged husband would later admit to police that he had abused her, he threatened her life that afternoon and he never believe she intended to kill him because the gun was never pointed directly at him. Yet she was convicted in less than 15 minutes by a jury and sentenced to 20 years in prison by a judge who said he had no other choice.

Yet, another recent case involved an elderly white man who walked in on his wife engaging in sex with a younger man and shot the other man dead. In that case, he claimed he believed he walked in on a stranger who had broken into his home and was raping his wife. In that case, he was acquitted under the “Stand Your Ground” law.

The minimum mandatory sentencing, which is known as the state’s “10-20-life” law was implemented in 1999. Anyone who displays a firearm in the commission of certain felonies receives an automatic 10 years behind bars. Anyone who fires a gun in the commission of certain felonies will receive a mandatory 20 years. If someone is shot or killed, he or she will receive 25 years to life in prison.

Florida is one of many states with minimum mandatory laws, mostly pertaining to drugs. But cases like this show how unfair these statutes can be. Even the Republican state legislator who originally created the law back in 1999 said the sentence in this case was not what lawmakers intended. Rather, he said, lawmakers were seeking to “get at the thug who was robbing a liquor store and… pulled out a gun and shot someone during the commission of a crime.”

Unfortunately, when lawmakers fail to consider the consequences of drafting overly-broad legislation, this is the kind of result we might see.
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In Pompano Beach, police reported that a 23-year-old man was arrested after reportedly attacking and choking his father, stopping only after the family’s dog, a pit bull, intervened and jumped on the back of the son.

Our Broward domestic violence defense lawyers recognize that domestic violence cases are always fraught with he-said-she-said, and unfortunately almost always, someone is going to jail, even when both parties may actually be equally culpable.

Most often, people think of domestic violence as occurring between those who have a romantic relationships. But parent-child relationships can be equally volatile.

Charges in these cases can be particularly severe, if the person alleged to be the victim is over the age of 65.

Some adult children may fail to take this aspect into account when the argument begins to escalate.

Florida statute 825.102 holds that abuse of an elderly person is defined as the intentional infliction of physical or psychological injury on an adult who is elderly or disabled or an intentional act that could be reasonably expected to result in physical or psychological injury to the elderly adult. One could also be charged under this statute if he or she is found to have actively encouraged another person to commit an act that results or might reasonably result in physical or psychological injury to the elderly victim.

Even if no serious bodily harm or permanent disability results from this action, the defendant could still be facing a third-degree felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison.

If the abuse is deemed to be aggravated – that is, it involves aggravated battery or willful torture, malicious punishment or caging that results in great bodily harm or permanent disability, the charge is hiked up to a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

By contrast, defendants charged solely with domestic violence will rarely face that kind of time.

Still, that’s not to say it isn’t serious. A conviction could be used against you in your divorce or child custody hearing – regardless of whether the incident involved the person you are now up against in the civil case. Plus, you won’t be able to bond out of jail immediately, you may have to surrender your firearms, it could be grounds for deportation and it could affect your current job or future employment prospects.

In this case, the argument involved an adult son and father and it was over money. It was around 9 a.m., and the argument rapidly escalated, with the son allegedly throwing his father to the ground and placing him a chokehold with his arm around his father’s neck.

The father would later tell investigators he struggled to gasp for air. The two men continued to fight throughout the house – into the kitchen and then back into the living room – where the father was again placed in another chokehold.

The father reportedly began yelling for help, and a neighbor burst in at that point, trying to pull the son off his father. He wasn’t strong enough, but around this time, the family’s pill bull jumped into the brawl.

The dog bit everyone involved a number of times.

The son then fled the apartment. He was arrested a short time later at a residence nearby.

Emergency medical services responded to treat the father for injuries, but the father declined.

The son was charged with domestic battery by strangulation and battery with domestic violence. These are third-degree felony charges, punishable by up to five years in prison.

He was not charged with elder abuse, as the father was just a few years shy of the cut-off for that charge.
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They say twins share a bond that is unrivaled.

But in the case of two twins from Palm Coast, it appears their rivalry too was unrivaled.

Our Fort Lauderdale domestic violence attorneys understand the two 21-year-old brothers spared using just about anything that was in reach – including a frying pan, a machete, a pickup truck and a gun. At one point, their mother got involved.

It sounds like a rather outrageous story not only because they are twins but because we tend to think of our siblings as the ones who are supposed to stand up and defend us. The reality is that sibling-on-sibling violence is not as unusual as you might think. Animosity can be deep-rooted, stemming from small slights in childhood all the way to grievous wrongs as adults.

A 2005 study by the University of Michigan revealed that roughly 35 percent of all siblings commit assaults against one another. This was true regardless of race, income level or ethnic group.

Part of the problem is that parents tend to expect siblings to fight in childhood, so they often do little to intervene. Those patterns then repeat themselves, sometimes into adulthood.

In this case, it’s not clear exactly what started the altercation. The brother alleged to be the victim told investigators that his brother approached him with a frying pan in hand, wielding it in a manner he deemed threatening.

The alleged victim said he pleaded with his brother to “stop pulling weapons on me,” before running out to his truck in an effort to get away. The aggressor however then climbed onto the hood of the truck and began banging on it with the frying pan. The aggressor then reportedly went inside the home, grabbed a machete and ran back outside threatening to stab his brother.

During this time, the other brother might have gotten away, but for the fact that he realized his keys were inside the house. In a reported effort to make it safely from his truck to his home, the alleged victim grabbed his gun from inside the truck, pointed it has brother and warned him to back up. When his brother refused, he reportedly fired two shots into the ground.

He then was able to go inside, retrieve his keys and leave, though he later told investigators he was worried his brother might have suffered a gunshot wound to the foot.

Investigators arrived to find that the aggressor reportedly did have a wound to his foot, though he refused to reveal to officers whether it was from a gunshot wound or something else. By the time officers got there, the boys’ mother was there and reportedly attempted to impede the investigation. She told police shots were never fired, though officers aren’t clear on how else she tried to impede their work.

Officers arrested the one brother for domestic violence assault and the mother for interfering with an investigation.

Domestic violence statutes are located in Chapter 741 of Florida Statutes, which cover domestic relations. A lot of times when we’re referring to domestic violence, we’re talking about married spouses or couples in relationships. However, the law doesn’t limit it in that way.

A domestic violence is considered any assault, battery, stalking, sex crime, kidnapping or any other criminal offense that results in injury or death against one family member, household member or romantic partner against another. It could mean someone who is related to you by marriage or by blood or someone with whom you have a child but are not romantically involved. It could even involve your roommate, regardless of whether you have any romantic or familial ties to that person.

Penalties for a domestic violence charge can be severe, and they could include sanctions at work or effects on your child custody arrangements as well. Your top priority after arrest should be to hire an experienced South Florida domestic violence attorney.
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A Hollywood woman is facing child abuse charges after investigators allege she burned her 17-year-old daughter, who had reportedly engaged in an online relationship with a boy, despite the fact that she was betrothed to her cousin.

Our Fort Lauderdale domestic violence lawyers know that instances like this, involving conservative Middle Eastern parents and their children, are sometimes referred to as “honor violence.” The girl’s actions, although acceptable by Western standards, are deemed a stain on her family’s honor by those within their religious and cultural community.

However, law enforcement officials and prosecutors will not take cultural backgrounds into consideration when deciding when to pursue charges in these cases. They are looking strictly at whether the alleged actions violate the law.

As styles of parental discipline can vary greatly between cultures, it’s very important immigrants to the U.S. understand how criminal laws vary between their native country and their new one. What in other places may be seen as a reasonable effort to control or punish unacceptable behavior, here is interpreted as child abuse or domestic violence.

Domestic violence, as defined in Florida Statute 741.28, is any form of assault, battery, sexual assault or battery, stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment or any other offense that results in the physical injury or death of a family or household member by another family or household member.

When the alleged victim of these acts is under the age of 18, it may be considered child abuse. There are varying degrees of this crime, but in its most basic form, child abuse is defined in Florida Statute 827.03 as the intentional infliction of physical or mental injury to a child or the intentional act that could reasonably result in physical or mental injury to a child or the intentional encouragement of such act.

In this case, the principal of the girl’s school called authorities after a classmate alerted them to the girl being suicidal over the incident, which is alleged to have taken place in January. Her 35-year-old mother, who was born in Yemen and speaks no English, reportedly burned the girl three times with a hot knife on her arm after learning of the friendship she had developed online with another boy, despite the fact that she had an arranged marriage pending.

The girl said that although her mother had carried out the action, her father had known about it. He has not at this juncture been charged with a crime, though based on the “encouragement” portion of the definition, he certainly could be at some point.

Initially when questioned, he told investigators the girl had burned herself on the stove. When detectives pointed out the presence of three different burns, the father requested to speak to an attorney and the interview ended. The mother was not interviewed, as she speaks only Arabic.

The mother was arrested on three counts of domestic violence and was released after posting nearly $23,000 bond.

There are numerous other examples where this issue has arisen in the U.S. recently. In the spring of 2008, a suburban New York brother stabbed his teen sister for going to nightclubs and donning clothing he deemed immodest. He was ultimately convicted of attempted murder and handed a 10-year sentence.

In the fall of 2009, a father killed his 20-year-old daughter in Arizona by running her over with a vehicle after she reportedly refused to be a party to the arranged marriage her parents had established for her. He was convicted of murder and given 35 years behind bars.

And then just last year, a 19-year-old was reportedly attacked by her father, mother and younger sister after she was caught speaking to a non-male family member. All three family members are facing assault charges.
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A retired Broward County Sheriff’s deputy who survived a gunshot wound to the head during a traffic stop five years ago, has been arrested on charges of domestic violence battery by strangulation against his estranged wife.

Fort Lauderdale domestic violence defense attorneys know that this charge is a third-degree felony under FL Statute 784.041, punishable by up to five years in prison.

It’s a serious charge that requires prosecutors to prove that the defendant knowingly and intentionally, against the will of the other person, impedes the alleged victim’s normal breathing or circulation by applying pressure to the person’s neck or throat or by blocking the person’s mouth or nose. It’s considered a domestic violence situation if the relationship between the accused and accuser is familial or dating or if the two share a household.

In this case, the pair had been married just three months and were allegedly arguing over whether their young son could or should stay with his paternal grandparents. Police say when the mother reached in to the vehicle to retrieve their son, the retired officer began pushing her from where he sat in the driver’s seat. He then reportedly grabbed her by the neck and applied pressure to the point that she was unable to breathe. It’s not clear whether he actually got out of the vehicle at any point during the alleged altercation.

The woman reportedly went to her parents’ home and immediately called police, who noted visible scratching and bruising on her throat.

However, defense attorneys for the former officer say that the residual effects of that shooting five years ago would have prevented him from carrying out that assault.

The traffic stop in which he was shot involved a convicted felon who reportedly owned a handgun. The felon had just learned that his probation officer knew about the gun, and was determined not to return to jail. When he was stopped, he responded by shooting the officer at close range in the head.

The officer required numerous surgeries and rehabilitation, during which he regained his ability to speak in both Spanish and English. Doctors called the recovery “miraculous.”

Then last year, while he was off-duty at an ice cream shop with his mother, he said a homeless man approached the two and assaulted his mom. He said he ordered the man to stop, but he would not. In the end, he said, he was forced to shoot him. The man survived, but no charges were ever filed.

The police report in this most recent case makes no mention of whether the officer’s traumatic head injury played a role in what happened. In fact, defense attorneys are denying the alleged victim’s allegations. But if the evidence at some point indicates that he did somehow assault his wife, defense lawyers may consider approaching it from the perspective that the head injury had impaired his judgment, and he therefore should not be held entirely or at all responsible.

This same reasoning could be potentially applied in domestic violence cases involving soldiers or others who have suffered some sort of severe trauma to the brain. It’s estimated that some 1.7 million Americans experience a traumatic brain injury each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

A 2011 study conducted by the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor indicated that young adults who have suffered severe head injuries were more likely to be involved in a physical altercation or participate in some other kind of violence. The findings were presented in the journal Pediatrics.

Researchers found that severe brain injuries may cause changes with regard not only to a person’s memory and emotions, but also their ability to reason and control impulsiveness and aggression.
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