Fort Lauderdale Criminal Attorney Blog

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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October 8, 2013

South Florida Drug Arrests Making Police Departments Wealthy

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

Law enforcement has been targeting illicit drug use and sales for a long time now.

But actually profiting?

An explosive, six-month investigation by the Sun-Sentinel revealed that police agencies are literally making millions of dollars by aggressively pursuing drug arrests in Fort Lauderadale and throughout South Florida.
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September 30, 2013

Florida Stalking Cases Make Headlines

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

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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September 20, 2013

Florida Juvenile Traffic Offenses: Potential for Long-Lasting Consequences

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

Police in Boynton Beach recently arrested a 14-year-old girl and a 35-year-old man after the two were stopped in a stolen vehicle, which was being driven by the underage, non-licensed girl.

Authorities say the girl was invited by the man to drive the vehicle after the two met at a party in Delray Beach. The girl would later say she had no idea the vehicle was stolen.

Our Palm Beach juvenile defense attorneys know that while this young driver could potentially be barred from obtaining a driver’s license until she’s 18, this does appear to be a situation in which a youth was strongly influenced by an older individual. That could factor into the judge’s determination of how harshly she should be treated. It’s plausible an argument could even be made that she was a victim in this case.
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September 15, 2013

Spate of Florida DUI Arrests Involve Parents

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

With the start of the school year comes a heightened risk of Florida DUI arrests, not just for newly-minted teen drivers, but parents as well.

While the summer months can be spent lazily at the beach or grilling out at home by the pool, the school year is packed with child-oriented activities. That includes not just ferrying younger children to-and-from school, but also to all sorts of sporting an extracurricular activities.

These demands will have parents out and about more. Even moderate consumption of alcohol or the controlled consumption of prescription medications or over-the-counter drugs could expose parents to the potential for a DUI.
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September 3, 2013

Florida Road Rage Case Could End in Felony Conviction

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

An alleged case of road rage in Boca Raton has resulted in a Coconut Creek man facing felony charges of aggravated assault after authorities say he pointed a gun at another driver on I-95.

Our Fort Lauderdale criminal traffic defense lawyers know that a recently-passed Florida law, which went into effect July 1, 2013, penalizes drivers who prompt road rage with slow driving.

A person poking along at more than 10 miles below the speed limit in the left lane of a multiple-lane highway or road while another vehicle is approaching from behind will face a $60 fine. The ticket received will also have the same effect on one’s driver’s license as a speeding ticket, which could inevitably drive up insurance rates.
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August 25, 2013

“Reasonable Suspicion” Key in Many Florida Criminal Cases

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

A criminal traffic defendant in Ohio this month was victorious in her appeal against a trooper who had stopped her and subsequently arrested her for DUI, reckless operation and failure to drive within marked lanes.

The grounds for her appeal? The trooper lacked a “reasonable, articulable” suspicion upon which to stop her. The appellate court agreed, and her conviction was reversed.

Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyers are well aware of the fact that reasonable suspicion can play a key role in whether an officer had the right to stop a defendant in the first place.
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August 20, 2013

Florida Drug Sentencing Severe, Despite Calls for Change

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

When U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder stood before the world and promised that his office was committed to curbing “draconian” minimum mandatory sentences for lower-tier drug offenders, it sounded awfully familiar to many Floridians.

For years, a bi-partisan coalition of activists in the state have been trying without success to overhaul Florida’s minimum mandatory drug laws. Our Fort Lauderdale drug crime defense attorneys know that recent analysis shows that a mandatory, three-year drug sentence in the state costs taxpayers nearly $58,500, while a combination of treatment and work release over that same time frame costs less than $20,000.

Crime in Florida is the lowest it’s been in more than four decades. Yet, our prison population continues to balloon with large numbers of first-time offenders, mostly arrested after undercover busts for trafficking in small amounts of drugs.
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