Jacksonville Criminal Attorney Blog

A Jacksonville Sheriff's Office worker has been arrested for eleven felonies in Jacksonville. Kenitra Casper was arrested for Official Misconduct, Disclosure of Confidential Criminal Justice Information, and Misuse of Confidential Information. She was a record keeper at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and had access to this information. These crimes are all third degree felonies in Jacksonville. Casper has been denied a bond in Jacksonville and is in the jail. She is accused of releasing pictures of narcotics officers who are undercover to drug dealers.

According to police reports, Casper accessed the secure JSO information database on nine different occasions and subsequently releasing the information to people who personally gained from receiving the information. Narcotics detectives routinely disguise themselves and try to buy and sell drugs on the streets of Jacksonville. They often only arrest the street level seller with very little marijuana or cocaine. Many of these street level individuals enter a house to get the drugs that they eventually sell to the police. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office rarely, if ever, seeks to get a search warrant of the "drug" house and instead busts the low man on the totem pole who is probably selling drugs to support his drug habit. The average drug sale in Jacksonville is around $20.00 according to police reports. These drug "sellers" are often convicted of the drug sale in Jacksonville and the public thinks JSO is getting a large number of big drug dealers off the streets.

Operation Dry Water was conducted this past weekend in Jacksonville, Florida. Operation Dry Water was a weekend of law enforcement officers looking for people who are boating under the influence. The United States Coast Guard works with local law enforcement to aggressively stop boaters with the hope of finding an impaired operator. The dates of this operation were June 24th through June 26th.

When you operate a boat on the waters of Jacksonville, you can be stopped by a number of agencies, including the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the United States Coast Guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife, and the Department of Environmental Protection. Boating Under the Influence "stops" in Jacksonville differ from Driving Under the Influence (DUI) stops because on the water, you can be stopped for no reason at all. Law enforcement on the water can stop your vessel for a courtesy safety check. That means you are subject to being stopped at any time. Once aboard your boat, the officer can develop reasonable suspicion to believe you are drinking and boating and ask you to perform field sobriety exercises. Law enforcement is trying to smell your breath for alcohol, looking at your eyes to see if they are red or watery, watching your walk to see if you stumble or sway, and listening to your speech for slurs or stutters. If they observe these things, you can be forced to the shore to perform the field sobriety exercises, such as the walk and turn test, the one leg stand test, the finger to nose test, and the alphabet test. If the officer thinks you failed the tests and he or she thinks they have probable cause, you will be arrested for boating under the influence in Jacksonville.

To prove the crime of boating under the influence, the prosecutor must prove that you were operating a vessel and while operating the vessel, you were under the influence of an alcoholic beverage, chemical substance, or a controlled substance (drug) to the extent that your normal faculties were impaired or you had a blood or breath alcohol level of .08 or more. A "vessel" is a boat that is subject to a license tax for operation and includes every description of a watercraft, barge, air boat, other than a seaplane, on the water used or capable of being used for transportation on the water. "Normal Faculties" are the ability to see, hear, walk, judge distances, operate a boat, make judgments, act in emergencies, and perform the mental and physical acts of daily life. "Operate" means that you are in charge of, in command of, or in actual physical control of a boat on the waters of Florida.

In Florida, there is a crime called "Possession of Burglary Tools". This is a third degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison. "Burglary tools" could be lock picks, a crow bar, or even a hammer. It is not enough just to have these tools in your pocket. In order to be convicted of this crime in Florida, the prosecutor must prove that you intended to commit a burglary, you had in your possession a tool that you intended to use in the commission of a burglary, and you did some overt act toward the commission of the burglary.

In Florida, "burglary" is when you enter or remain in a dwelling, structure, or a conveyance (automobile) with the intent to commit an offense therein. Many people think that you have to "break" something in order to be arrested for burglary. Not so. You can touch the outside of a building with the intent to commit a crime inside and that can be considered a burglary. If you enter someone's garage with the intent to commit a crime and eventually leave, you can still be arrested for burglary to a dwelling in Florida.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office utilizes police dogs for a variety of tasks. One job of the dogs is to alert when the dog smells drugs. If a drug-detection dog alerts to the exterior of a car, that gives the officer probable cause to search the car without getting a warrant. An alert is a gesture or noise the dog makes when it smells the illegal drugs.

As a Jacksonville Drug Attorney, I have had many cases where the drug-detection dogs were used. Many times, the officer will pull over a car for a civil infraction (ticket) and will call the drug officer to the scene. As long as the drug dog and the handler get there within the time it takes for the officer to write the ticket, the dog sniff is considered valid. The officer will walk the dog around the exterior of the car and if the dog alerts, the officer can search the interior of your car without your permission.

In order for the search to be valid, the officer must have a reasonable basis for believing the drug-detection dog is reliable. After being arrested in Jacksonville for something found in your car after a dog alerts, such as illegal drugs or a gun, the prosecutor must present the training and certification records of the dog, an explanation of the meaning of the particular training and certification of that dog, field performance records, and evidence concerning the experience and training of the officer handling the dog.

Recently, a man was arrested in Jacksonville for a burglary after being stopped by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office for not having a light on his bicycle. The Florida Times Union reported that Joshua Emmanuel Jones was arrested after being stopped on his bike at night. Police searched the bag that was on him and found items that had been reported stolen from a woman's apartment a few days ago.

This type of "traffic" stop is common for Jacksonville police, but only in certain areas of town. When someone in Jacksonville rides a bike without a light on after dark, that is a civil traffic infraction. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office can pull you over for not having the light. Once the officer stops you, he or she is supposed to write you a citation and be on their way. Unfortunately, most officers don't stop there. As a Jacksonville Criminal Attorney, I have read many arrest and booking reports where the arrest began with this kind of stop. Many of these reports claim that the person who was stopped consented to a search of their person or their bags. Our Jacksonville Criminal Defense clients often tell us they never consented to any type of search, the officer just did it. If JSO finds drugs or a gun, they have the basis for an arrest for all kinds of crimes, such as possession of a controlled substance or carrying a concealed firearm.

Many people in Jacksonville ride their bicycles at the beaches, but few are cited for riding without a light. The great majority of people who are cited for this are in the Northside and Downtown areas. If JSO wants to protect the safety of bike riders by enforcing law making them have a light on their bikes, they should cite people around the city, not just in places they think they can eventually make more arrests.

Gainesville state attorneys have dropped DUI (driving under the influence) charges against a University of Florida basketball player in Gainesville, Florida. Dan Werner was arrested in Gainesville for DUI in April of this year. Officers pulled Werner over because of a tag light being out. There was no driving pattern. When police made contact with Werner in his vehicle, they said they smelled alcohol on him. Officers said he did not do well on the field sobriety exercises and arrested him for DUI in Florida. When he blew into the breathilizer, he blew .07 and .065, both under the legal limit in Florida. The Gainesville state attorney's office said there was not enough evidence to convict Werner of the DUI.

In Jacksonville, people are arrested for DUI every day. When police suspect you of driving under the influence in Duval County, they will make initial observations about the suspect's appearance, smell, and demeanor. Many times, when someone is arrested for DUI in Jacksonville, the police will notice the odor of an unknown alcoholic beverage on the suspect's breath. They also note whether or not the suspect has red, bloodshot, or watery eyes and impaired speech, such as slurred, stuttered, or thick-tongued. JSO is also looking for balance issues, such as weaving or stumbling. Once they have two or three of these indicators of impairment, police can ask you to perform field sobriety exercises. Field sobriety exercises are taught to all police officers and they practice them extensively. They are the horizontal gaze nystagmus, walk and turn, one leg stand, Rhomberg Alphabet, and finger to nose. Officers note "clues" of impairment on their reports. Such clues could be not following directions to something as small as stemming 1/2 an inch off of a line in the walk and turn exercise. If, after completing the exercises, the officer determines he or she has probable cause to believe you are driving under the influence, you will be arrested for DUI. Only after you are arrested are you afforded the opportunity to blow into the breathilizer. Even if you blow below the legal limit, which is .08, you will still be facing a DUI charge in Jacksonville.

In Werner's case, he blew .065 and .07, just below the limit. There was a video of his performance on the field sobriety exercises. Apparently, Werner did well. In Jacksonville, even though you blow below the limit, the state attorney's office does pursue some low blow cases. They argue that by the time the suspect is transported downtown to blow, time has passed for the alcohol to burn out of the person's system. The prosecutors look for other evidence of the suspect's impairment to prove their case.

A 12 year-old boy has been arrested and charged with premeditated first-degree murder in Jacksonville. Christian Fernandez is accused of beating his brother, David, to death. David was two years-old.

In Jacksonville and all of Florida, before a child (juvenile) under 14 years-old can be charged as an adult, the state attorney's office has to obtain an indictment from a grand jury. That means the prosecutor's office has to present the evidence they have to a panel of citizens and the grand jury members decide whether or not to charge the child. The process of treating a child as an adult in criminal court is called "direct file". If the juvenile is over 14 years-old, the state attorney's office has the sole discretion to direct file the child.

Fernandez faces life in prison if he is convicted of first-degree murder. According to police, his brother, David, sustained a skull fracture, subdural hemorrage, subdural hematoma, bruising on his left eye, and bruising on the bridge of his nose. JSO interviewed the boy and claimed he admitted to shoving David into a bookshelf two times. They also claim Fernandez said he broke David's leg in January.

Fernandez's mother, Biannela Susana, was also arrested in Jacksonville. She is charged with Aggravated Manslaughter of a Child, which is a first degree felony. The state attorney's office would have to prove that Susana unlawfully, by culpable negligence, caused the death of someone under 18 years-old. They have to prove she failed to provide David with care, supervision, and services necessary to maintain the child's physical and mental health, including but not limited to food, nutrition, clothing, shelter, supervision, medicine, and medical services that a prudent person would consider essential for the well-being of the child. Authorities claim Susana, when initially interviewed about David's injuries, told them she was at home in the kitchen when the injuries occurred. Later, she said she was not home at the time and when she arrived home, Christian told her David fell off a bunk bed. JSO also claims Susana waited two hours before taking David to the hospital and never called 911.

In January, David had a broken leg and Susana told authorities he fell off a jungle gym. Later, she said Christian broke David's leg while the two boys were wrestling.