Jacksonville Criminal Attorney Blog

As a Jacksonville criminal lawyer who whose practice is 100% criminal defense, I am constantly dealing with police officers who have made decisions about my client's liberty and life. Police officers are one of the few class of people in our society who can kill you with virtual immunity and it is of vital importance that the men and women who wear the uniform be of sound mind and temperament.

JSO officer, Darin Bickle, has received a reprimand for unbecoming conduct and abuse of authority. He was mad at a Lowe's employee about the warranty on his pressure washer. When Bickle did not get his way, he told the employee he was a police officer, yelled, and pointed his finger in the employee's face. Bickle told the employee he is a police officer who helps people and this employee was about to help him. Bickle admitted he was out of control.

This is not Bickle's first problem at work. He was cited for incompetency 2 years ago and did not take appropriate action last year.

A police officer who gets "out of control" about a pressure washer has no business walking the streets of Jacksonville with a gun and the power to use it. What if he was in a high stress situation and loses control again?

Another JSO officer has been arrested in Jacksonville. Arnold Sharkey is accused of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated domestic assault. Both are third degree felonies punishable for up to 5 years in prison. The alleged victim, Sharkey's wife, told police he waited for her to leave work. Her brother picked her up and Sharkey allegedly pulled in front of them and started swerving back and forth blocking their way. Sharkey then made a u-turn, getting behind them and used his car to hit the rear corner of their vehicle. His wife then told police that he struck their car again twice and flipped his car in a ditch. Sharkey's wife's brother gave the same story to police. Upon being questioned, Sharkey told police he was in "big trouble".

The state attorney's office has not made a decision about what to file, if anything, against Sharkey. When someone is arrested for a felony in Jacksonville, the state attorney's office has discretion on what criminal charges to bring. The state can elect to file the exact charges someone is arrested for, can reduce the charge to a misdemeanor, or drop the criminal charges all together. That is why it is important to contact a Jacksonville Felony Attorney as soon as possible after you are arrested in Jacksonville.

There are now 4 JSO officers facing pending felony charges in Jacksonville.

An Avon Park police officer has been adjudicated guilty of a felony and sentenced to a year in jail. Adam Willis entered a plea to grand theft after he was arrested for taking a wallet from an unlocked car while he was on duty to protect the citizens of Florida.

There are many levels of theft crimes in Jacksonville and in all of Florida. A theft is committed if you knowingly obtain, use, or try to obtain property that belongs to someone else with the intent to permanently or temporarily deprive them of it. Depending on the value of the property, the crime can be a felony or a misdemeanor. If the value is under $300.00, it is a misdemeanor. If the value is over $300.00, it will be considered a felony grand theft.

As a Jacksonville Driving Lawyer, I have represented people charged with all kinds of driving infractions, from driving on a suspended license to DUI. The most common driving charge is a civil traffic infraction, such as speeding or careless driving.

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper has been arrested for writing hundreds of fake tickets to up his quota. Paul Lawrence was arrested in Miami for official misconduct, which is a third degree felony in Florida. Many of the tickets have been dismissed and authorities are searching for more. Many of the fake tickets issued did not have the driver's signature. The victims were people Lawrence had pulled over in the past and because he had their information, it made the scam easier.

Two JSO police officers have been arrested for lying. Sgt. Marc Garza and Off. David Cervone were arrested on Tuesday for official misconduct, a third degree felony, and falsely reporting the commission of a crime, a first degree misdemeanor.

They wanted to get into what they believed was a drug house, but no one answered the door. They attempted to use a technique called "Knock and Talk". This is when JSO does not have a warrant, but knock on someone's door to try to get consent to search the house. When the person refuses to let them in, the police inevitably smell the odor of burnt marijuana or see drugs, paraphernalia, or a weapon in plain sight. This makes it easier for the police to search the house.

In the case of Garza and Cervone, since no one was home, Garza is accused of moving an air conditioning unit and his officers entered the house without a warrant. Neither of the officers has been charged with burglary in Jacksonville, but they should be. In order to sustain a charge of burglary, the officers had to enter the house with the intent to commit a crime therein. The crime the officers intended to commit was official misconduct. Police are not allowed to enter a home without a warrant and these officers clearly did not have one. These officers then went further. They intentionally falsified a police report by stating that a woman flagged them down and reported that she saw someone break into the house. There was no such woman.

All of these officer's cases are now subject to scrutiny. How many other citizens have they arrested under false pretenses?

JSO police officer, James Toner, was arrested in Neptune Beach for false imprisonment and simple battery earlier this week. Police were dispatched to Pete's Bar in reference to a disturbance. When they arrived, the alleged victim was handcuffed in the rear and Toner was standing over him. The victim told police that the officer approached him and asked if he could buy cocaine from him. They started to argue and Pete's bouncer told Toner to leave. Toner was escorted out of the bar and Toner allegedly hit the victim several times on the head while yelling at him. While the victim was lying in the middle of 1st St., Toner allegedly put the victim in handcuffs and put him in Toner's patrol car. There were 3 witnesses who saw Toner hitting the victim and putting him in his patrol car.

Toner drove his patrol car up to the bar where he consumed alcohol. He was also carrying a gun on his person while, according to Neptune Beach Police, he was intoxicated. Before going to the bar, Toner was at a restaurant.

If a normal citizen is arrested for a felony, the police will seize anything used in the commission of that felony. False imprisonment is a felony in Jacksonville and anywhere in Florida. A non-officer would have had his car seized and the gun placed in the property room. Toner's weapon was released to JSO and so was his car.

JSO officer, Marcus Kilpatrick, has entered a plea to the criminal charge of culpable negligence following the accident he caused which killed a man. He was placed on probation in Jacksonville to perform community service hours.

Kilpatrick was originally arrested in Jacksonville for falsely reporting to law enforcement. Witnesses at the scene of the accident say Kilpatrick did not have his lights on when he was traveling at a high rate of speed that led to the accident. Witnesses say he turned on his lights after the wreck and told the Florida Highway Patrol that his lights were on the whole time.

In his criminal case, the state attorney's office listed 20 category A witnesses. Category A witnesses are people who have direct knowledge and evidence in the case. Only one of these "A" witnesses was a JSO officer. All the others are citizens and Florida Highway Patrol. The state attorney's office decided to drop the charge of lying to law enforcement and instead opted to pursue culpable negligence for him not having his lights on while going so fast pursuing someone for window tint.

In Jacksonville, JSO officers have been convicted of murder, rape, and theft, but never for lying. In this case, Kilpatrick almost assuredly lied and it is amazing that he was not prosecuted. As Jacksonville Criminal Defense Attorneys, we have our clients prosecuted by the same office with less evidence. If Kilpatrick was not a police officer at the time of this vehicular homicide, the results may have been different. Police officers should be held to the same standard, if not a higher one, as the rest of the public. Officers have the discretion to take away liberty and life and there should be no question about their integrity and honesty.

Kilpatrick is still employed as a JSO officer for now.

Normally, if a citizen wants to report a crime in Jacksonville, he or she has to call and wait for the police to report to the scene. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office now has an online crime reporting site. Citizens can only report certain kinds of crimes on this system. They are:

Petty Theft in Jacksonville
Grand Theft Auto in Jacksonville
Burglary to a Conveyance (car) in Jacksonville
Criminal Mischief

If you can identify the suspect of the crime, you can't use this system. Apparently, you can only use it if you have no idea who committed the crime. You also have to submit your email address. The same rules about falsely reporting a crime apply to this online system. As Jacksonville criminal defense lawyers, we have many cases where the "victim" of a crime recants after our client is arrested. The state attorney's office rarely does, but can charge these "victims" with falsely reporting a crime.

A police officer in Sumter County, Florida was arrested this past Thanksgiving weekend for DUI in Marion County. Police say that Benjamin Muecke was swerving on the road and was driving a card with an expired tag. After being pulled over, police say Muecke had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and had red and watery eyes. He also reportedly struggled with getting his driver's license and registration. After completing the field sobriety exercises, he was arrested for DUI.

Many DUI arrests in Jacksonville begin with police pulling a car over for some traffic infraction. Police have to have a "reasonable suspicion" that a suspect has committed a traffic offense. Once they pull you over, in almost every DUI arrest and booking report, police observe red/bloodshot/watery eyes, the moderate/strong odor of alcohol coming from the suspect's breath, and slurred/thick-tongued/stuttered speech. If these things are noted by the officer, that gives him reasonable suspicion to request that the suspect perform field sobriety exercises. If the suspect refuses, they will most likely be arrested for DUI and the refusal can be used against the suspect. If the suspect does not perform up to the officer's standard, they will be arrested for DUI if the officer thinks he has probable cause for arrest. A Jacksonville DUI attorney can analyze every step of your DUI arrest to make sure the police used proper procedure. If they did not, the Florida DUI attorney could attempt to suppress evidence and that could lead to the DUI being dropped or reduced to a lesser charge such as reckless driving.

An evidence technician was arrested in St, Johns County yesterday for grand theft and official misconduct. Officer Paul Robinson is accused of stealing the drugs he was in charge of collecting from recent arrests. Evidence technicians are supposed to take pictures, look for fingerprints, and collect evidence. After the evidence is collected, they are supposed to take it to the property room where they are held. Many of the drugs allegedly stolen by Robinson are said to be pills.

A then-pregnant woman who was arrested at an ER in Jacksonville can sue the police officer for an illegal arrest. Melanie Williams was arrested in 2005 for fleeing and eluding a police officer and reckless driving in Jacksonville. She was bleeding and felt as if she was going to pass out. As she was driving, police say she ran a red light. After pulling over, she told the officer she was sick and drove to the hospital. Police followed and then arrested her at the scene.

The felony charge of fleeing and eluding an officer and the misdemeanor charge of reckless driving were dropped shortly after her arrest. When you are arrested in Jacksonville, the state attorney's office makes a decision on what to do. They can file the case as charged, reduce the charges to lesser crimes, or drop the charges all together. Both the police and the state attorney's office have great power and discretion over people's liberty.

An officer in St. Marys, Georgia has been fired for inappropriate behavior on Facebook. This is not the first time the officer, Robert Godley, has been in trouble. When he applied at the St. Marys police department, he did not disclose his prior misconduct at other law enforcement positions.

One law enforcement position was a security officer at Kings Bay. Godley was fired from there because he looked at pornography while on duty and the porn he was viewing on work time took him to a child pornography site.

Godley was also told to step down in Arizona as a police officer after a woman accused him of stalking her.

Police officers have a very important job to do and should be held to the highest standards. Officers can kill you and take away your liberty with virtual immunity. Hopefully, all of this officer's arrests were legitimate.

Taser International, the company that manufactures the "Taser", has now introduced a new product to law enforcement. It is a device that records, both by video and audio, an officer's entire shift. The camera is worn like a Bluetooth on your ear.

In theory, the police would pick up the recorder at the beginning of their shift and at the end, download the entire day onto a database. Taser claims that the video cannot be deleted, but can be viewed and "managed" by the officer.

Some police officers in Jacksonville have cameras on the dash of their police cars. It is not known how particular officers get picked to have the cameras, but the majority of the officers with cameras are DUI officers. If you are arrested for DUI in Jacksonville by a DUI officer, it is likely that you are captured on video. Even if the officer has a camera, it sometimes "malfunctions". In my experience as a DUI Lawyer in Jacksonville, when there is no video in a DUI case, the officer will not even attempt to have the "problem" fixed. They claim that the camera just malfunctions sometimes.

A Jacksonville Sheriff's Office detective has been suspended for numerous violations. Officer Marva Watkins was suspended for 20 days for putting the wrong bullets in her fun and for shooting at a suspect in a parking lot. Watkins originally fingered the wrong man as a suspect for and while bringing that man out of a nightclub, she saw the man she was looking for. The man ran away and Watkins shot at him.

After investigating the incident, JSO found that Watkins did not have authority to use deadly force, she should not have shot a gun while running, and other various violations of policy. In addition to the suspension, Watkins went through training she previously went through in the police academy.

A former Colorado prison guard must pay a former inmate $1.3 million as part of the inmate's civil lawsuit. The guard raped the inmate, but prosecutors allowed him to plea to a misdemeanor charge of illegal sexual contact. The guard served only 2 months in jail for the sex offense. The guard had a sexual relationship with the inmate, but this conduct is highly inappropriate as well as highly illegal. Not only did he have sex with the inmate, but when she refused to have sex with him, he anally raped her.

Even thought the case was finished in criminal court, an alleged victim can still sue civilly. That means if you are arrested on a sex crime in Jacksonville and a Jacksonville Sex Crimes Attorney gets the charges dropped, the alleged victim can still win in civil court. The burden of proof in a criminal case is much higher than in a civil case. In a criminal case in Jacksonville, the state attorney must prove you are guilty beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt. In a civil case, the other side must only prove more likely than not the event happened.

In Jacksonville, especially recently, there is a lot of scrutiny placed on police action when officers initiate contact with citizens and the interaction goes bad. Recently, a man was shot and killed by JSO officers in Springfield. The whole situation started when two officers approached 2 citizens who were walking in the road. One man became upset he was being questioned and things escalated from there. The man eventually ran away and was shot in the back multiple times. In response to the shooting, a police chief told the media, "There were two perfectly good sidewalks" for them to walk on. He implied that if the man had been walking on the sidewalk, he would not have been killed.

This leads me to one of the most frequent reasons police stop and detain citizens. There is a law in Florida that prohibits loitering and prowling. In order to arrest and prosecute someone for this crime in Jacksonville, the elements that must be met are:

1. A person is loitering and prowling in a place, at a time, or in a manner not usual for law-abiding people.

2. The loitering and prowling was under circumstances that warranted a justifiable and reasonable alarm or immediate concern for the safety of people or property in the area.

Police will arrest someone for this crime in Jacksonville simply because they are standing in a high-crime area. That behavior is not enough to sustain a conviction for this crime.

Atlantic Beach, Jacksonville, Police Chief is being investigated for inappropriate behavior toward a female. Michael Classey denies any harassment, but the woman claims Classey would find her wherever she was in the department.

If you have been arrested in Atlantic Beach, call our Jacksonville Beaches Criminal Defense Law Firm at (904) 634-0900. Our Jacksonville Criminal Defense Attorneys are available 24 hours a day for a free consultation.

A police officer in Virginia who specializes in arresting people for DUI is on trial for his own DUI. Bryan Womble is on the DUI unit and was arrested with a .15 blood alcohol level. That is nearly 2 times the legal limit of .08. Womble crashed his car into another car and fled the scene. He was later apprehended and performed poorly on the field sobriety exercises.

The trial has been continued to September because Womble's criminal defense attorney told the Court that there was possibly new evidence.

An police chief in Alexandria, Virginia has been arrested for DUI with an accident. David Baker was in a city car at the time and his blood alcohol level was .19, over 2 times the legal limit of .08.

Baker hit a woman's car and she was transported to the hospital. Because Baker's blood alcohol level was over .15, he could face a mandatory 5 days in jail according to Virginia law.

If you are arrested for DUI in Jacksonville or anywhere in Florida and blow over a .15, there is no mandatory jail time, but there is a drastic increase in the fines and you may be required to put an interlock device on your car. The interlock device is a portable breath test machine attached to your car and the car won't start if the alcohol level is over .08.

If you have questions about a DUI arrest in Jacksonville, contact our DUI Attorneys in Jacksonville at (904) 634-0900.

The NAACP is providing a platform for victims of police misconduct/brutality. The association now provides a way for victims to upload images and video of police brutality.

The program is called "Rapid Report System" and allows people to respond to the videos/pictures.