Fort Lauderdale Criminal Attorney Blog

December 20, 2013

Navarette v. California – Traffic Stops Based on Anonymous Tips

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

The Fourth Amendment well establishes that before a police officer can initiate a traffic stop, he or she must have reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed or is about to be committed.

But in the case of Navarette v. California, the question is what obligation does a patrol officer have to corroborate anonymously provided information relating to reckless drivers. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take on this issue, with oral arguments slated to for late next month.

The resulting decision is likely to have a great impact on whether Broward DUI defense lawyers will have additional grounds on which to challenge the evidence against our clients.
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December 15, 2013

Holidays Rife With Domestic Violence Allegations in Florida

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

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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December 10, 2013

Social Media as Criminal Evidence in DUI: ‘2 Drunk 2 Care’

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

These days, people have become accustomed posting almost every element of their lives on social media. There are vacation photos, music choices and even snapshots of daily meals.

But this atmosphere of over-sharing has in some cases led to the casual and sometimes bold admittance of involvement in criminal activity.

A recent South Florida drunk driving arrest may well illustrate this, if the reports prove true.
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November 27, 2013

Florida Lawmakers Seek Expansion of Fetus Protections

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

In a move that could have sweeping effects on a broad range of criminal defendants, lawmakers in Florida are weighing a move to broaden protections for unborn children. What’s more, unlike many other similar measures, pro-choice advocates seem unlikely to fight the action, which means its chances of approval are much higher.

The new law would make it a separate crime to cause injury or death to an unborn child – regardless of the fetus’ stage of development.

Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorneys know this could end up resulting in major complexities and complications in cases ranging from allegations of DUI to domestic violence.
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November 20, 2013

Stalking Allegations on the Rise in Florida

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

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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November 10, 2013

Domestic Violence Arrest: “He Kept Walking Into My Knife”

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

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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November 3, 2013

Broward DUI Lawyer: Avail Yourself of Right to Remain Silent

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

The Florida DUI arrest of a former corporate bigwig from New York may well have made headlines regardless of the words that came out of his mouth. However, those headlines undoubtedly appeared more prominently as a result of his perceived audacity.

Like far too many people, this individual made the mistake of assuming he could talk his way out of a DUI. In the process, he probably made the situation worse.

What we try to stress to our clients is that almost nothing you say to a police officer is going to make him or her have pity on you and let you go if in fact you’ve been drinking and driving (which you should never admit). It’s even less likely that an officer will be intimidated by threats of who you are or who you know. In fact, that almost always serves to make the officer more determined to arrest you.
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October 25, 2013

Florida Cyberbully Felony Arrest for Teen Girls

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

Two young teenagers are facing felony stalking charges in Florida following the suicide of a classmate who was reportedly bullied by the two girls via social media for more than a year.

Having recently wrote about a number of stalking cases in our Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyer blog, we have noted a trend in which juvenile defendants are increasingly being charged with this crime in connection with their activities online.

Bullying has always been around, but there are a number of reasons why it is seemingly more prevalent today. For one thing, ever-advancing technology allows everyone to remain in constant contact through a variety of outlets. For a teen with a smartphone, messages can be fired off instantaneously to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, as well as through e-mails and text messages. That means two things: One, the targets of these actions feel like they can never get away from their aggressors. Two, the evidence against the alleged bullies is now incredibly easy to obtain, all right there in a single device.
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October 20, 2013

Florida Aggravated Assault Case to be Retried

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

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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October 15, 2013

Florida DUI Breathalyzer Results Raise Accuracy Questions

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

The issue of the accuracy of breathalyzers in Florida is once again being raised with the recent arrest of a woman whose blood-alcohol level might suggest that she should have been in a coma.

Our Fort Lauderdale DUI defense lawyers know that this is just the latest in a long line of cases raising serious doubt about whether breathalyzers are in fact an effective measure for determining one’s true level of intoxication.

According to media reports, the defendant, from North Florida, was stopped after reportedly running off the road on a Wednesday evening. At the time, she admitted to deputies that she had been drinking. But said she “felt fine” and consented to undergoing several field sobriety tests.
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