Florida Criminal Lawyer Blog

Broward criminal attorney William Moore knows that most police officers are upstanding individuals who are doing a great service for Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach, and other local south Florida communities. Unfortunately, police brutality is often difficult to document or to prove. This is especially true in light of a federal government study that found that only a relatively small percentage of claims of police brutality or excessive use of force were meritorious. There is also evidence suggesting that only a minority of actual police brutality victims file report the abuse. Victims have complained that claim procedures are daunting and difficult in many jurisdictions.

The video below, showing a South Carolina police officer using force on a Florida woman, has been touted as an example of police brutality:

Although the video does not detail how long the woman waited to pull her car over due to the fears she expressed concerning the remoteness of her location, she apparently received only a traffic citation. The police officer in the video was fired, according to CourtTV, and the woman won a large civil settlement from the police department for her abuse.

Likewise, in aftermath of the events in the following disturbing video, the police officer was fired. Broward County criminal lawyer William Moore cautions that the injuries shown in this video are graphic:

The police officer’s decision to stop the tape does not reflect well on him. The large pool of blood and the woman’s obvious injuries to her face suggest police brutality. In that case, the officer was apparently fired but did not face criminal charges.

Police brutality is typically investigated by local prosecutors or the police department itself, which is problematic because either of those institutions have either an interest in covering for a violent police officer or a pro-police bias. In fact, a review of Chicago-area police brutality allegations determined that the Chicago Police Department took disciplinary action in only 19 of 10,000 cases during a two year period.

Of course, in many instances the use of force by Broward, Miami-Dade, or Palm Beach police officers is justified. Bystanders and people upon whom force is exercised may believe that the force is excessive, although it is appropriate according to police protocol.

If you have been arrested or you are the victim of police brutality in south Florida, contact Broward criminal lawyer William Moore as soon as possible.

Continue reading " Fort Lauderdale Criminal Lawyer on Police Brutality " »

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Broward criminal lawyer William Moore has represented young clients caught up in the tough situation of criminal accusations on a school campus, even providing representation at disciplinary hearings before a school board. The tangle of school and justice system problems 25 local teenagers have found themselves in will not be easy to navigate. It is not yet clear if the youth are facing charges in adult criminal court or juvenile court or if they are represented by a Broward criminal defense lawyer at this time.. On Wednesday, law enforcement authorities responded to South Broward High School in Hollywood, Florida, when the school resource officer radioed local police for backup at about 11:00 in the morning.

A feud between two groups of neighborhood teens spilled over onto school grounds. Although police have not released information concerning how the fight began, it quickly escalated into a massive brawl. Broward area police responded to the report of a fight and arrived on the scene to break it up. Within just a few moments, between 30 and 50 children had become involved, with approximately 100 more watching the fight. Luckily, none of the youths were seriously injured. According to a police spokesman speaking to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, “There were no weapons, just punches. One or two of them might have a bump, bruise, or black eye, but nothing that required medical treatment."

School officials locked down the school while police investigated and made arrests. Eighteen students were arrested for misdemeanors, including disturbing a school function and disorderly conduct, but were released into their parents’ custody after a trip to the police station. The students included 17 boys and only one girl.

After South Broward High School classes ended for the day, the mischief continued. Several teens who were not arrested in the first round of fighting were taken into police custody after school for misdemeanor trespassing. Seven people total were arrested in that incident and five are students at South Broward High School.

According to Broward County criminal lawyer William Moore, most children under the age of 18 who are arrested face charges in the juvenile court. If any of the teens were 18 or older, they must be processed in adult criminal court. In some cases of particularly severe conduct, prosecutors will certify children under the age of 18 for adult criminal charges, which is a growing trend in Florida.

South Broward High School serves 2,140 area students.

Continue reading " Hollywood Criminal Lawyer – 25 High School Students Arrested Wednesday " »

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Broward criminal attorney William Moore would like to extend his sympathy to the Ryce family, who have suffered due to their son’s horrific murder as well as the death of Miami-Dade resident Claudine Ryce, Jimmy’s mother, which was announced today. The Jimmy Ryce Act, as discussed yesterday, was enacted after 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce was murdered in 1995 in Redlands in Miami-Dade County. The goal of the law is to prevent people prone to committing sex crimes from re-entering society, even after they have served their prison sentences, by putting committing them in a civil treatment center. Broward criminal lawyer William Moore does not believe that the intent of the Act is being carried out properly, as the treatment center in Arcadia has failed to live up to expectations.

The Florida legislature unanimously passed the Jimmy Ryce Act, also known as the Involuntary Civil Commitment for Sexually Violent Predators' Treatment and Care Act, in 1998. Jimmy Ryce was nine years old when he was abducted at gunpoint on his way home from the bus stop after school. The perpetrator was Juan Carlos Chavez, a handyman in the area, who was linked to the crime after Jimmy’s backpack was discovered at his residence. Chavez confessed after 55 hours of questioning by police and eventually led law enforcement officials to Jimmy’s body, describing in detail the events leading up to Jimmy’s death.

According to Chavez, he abducted Jimmy and took him back to the trailer Chavez resided in on the property where he worked. Chavez confessed to raping Jimmy and told police that Jimmy ran to the front door to escape when he heard a helicopter overheard. In order to prevent the child’s escape, Chavez shot Jimmy, and stayed with him until he died. Later, Chavez dismembered Jimmy’s body, hiding it in cement. Chavez was convicted of kidnapping, sexual assault, and first-degree murder and was sentenced to death. At this time, Chavez remains on death row, as he is still exhausting his appeals.

Interestingly, it is not clear that the man who kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and eventually killed Jimmy Ryce was a known sexual predator. For example, his profile on the Florida Sex Offender Registry does not list any qualifying offenses for sex offender/sexual predator registration prior to the offenses he committed against Jimmy, nor does the website of the Jimmy Ryce Center claim that his death could have been prevented by a similar law. The Jimmy Ryce Act has good intentions, but the state has failed to adequately provide treatment. Locking up people indefinitely for the purposes of treating them – and to pre-empt crime – is not productive if there is no hope of reintegrating those offenders into society. The extremely limited treatment, combined with the bad conditions and lack of reintegration program, are not conducted in the spirit of rehabilitation of sex offenders.

Continue reading " Broward Criminal Attorney on the Jimmy Ryce Act, Part 2 " »

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Broward criminal attorney William Moore represents clients accused of sex crimes and urges anyone arrested for a sex crime in the Miami-Dade/Broward/Palm Beach area to contact him as soon as possible following the arrest. Florida has tough sex crime laws, including the requirement that most people convicted of a sex crime register as sex offenders or sexual predators with the Florida Sex Offender Registry. A listing on the registry carries a lot of baggage, such as informing your new neighbors of your status when you move and limitations on where you can actually reside. Employment prospects diminish and sex offenders may be ostracized socially. In addition to sex offender registration, the felons are also frequently incarcerated for many years, sentenced to long periods of probation, can never have a firearm again, and attend court-mandated therapy. Despite that, the Florida legislature decided a decade ago that these punishments were not enough and enacted the Jimmy Ryce Act, a move that Broward criminal defense attorney William Moore believes was fueled by fear concerning offender re-entry and re-integration into society.

The Jimmy Ryce Act, also known by its official title The Involuntary Civil Commitment for Sexually Violent Predators' Treatment And Care Act, was enacted in 1997 and implemented early the following year. The act allows state attorneys and other officials to evaluate sex offenders upon their release from incarceration to determine if they are particularly likely to commit more sex crimes. Unfortunately, predicting the future has always been an imprecise science, but that has not stopped the provisions of the Jimmy Ryce Act from playing out. If the state officials determine that the convict, who will already be a sex offender or sexual predator required to register, and who has already served all of his criminal punishment, is likely to commit another sex crime, they will move to have him civilly committed.

In these instances, the offender often loses the battle to avoid commitment, landing in the treatment facility in Arcadia, Florida. The center is privately run and has changed hands recently on account of the utter failure of the system. The offenders receive only about five hours of treatment per week and in its brief history, the prison turned treatment facility has already had a disaster involving an escape and a protest by the former inmates that necessitated hundreds of police officers to control. The Florida facility also had a murder on site, another blemish in its short history. The 2007 New York Times exposé of the facility showed a mismanaged site full of drunken convicts who had sex with one another and with female employees. One employee even commented to that reporter that they did not mind the rule-breaking, because “[a]s long as they are happy, we let them go.”

The cesspool in Arcadia is fails to provide adequate treatment. Even worse, it is primarily a means to lock up people who have already paid their dues to society by serving out their time in prison. Worst of all, the facility completely lacks a program designed to reintegrate its residents into their homes in Broward County or elsewhere – and it is difficult to get out once you have been put it in. Broward criminal defense lawyer William Moore believes Florida should undertake serious reforms to its civil commitment system for felons convicted of sex crimes.

Continue reading " Broward Criminal Lawyer: the Jimmy Ryce Act " »

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Palm Beach criminal lawyer William Moore loves dumb criminal stories and a group of masked arsonists that hit Pompano Beach last night is no exception. The five unidentified people have eluded police since last night, despite the fact that they were caught on video, and their motive for setting fire to a local business remains a mystery.

At about 10 p.m. last night, five people broke into Rides, Slides and Games, Inc. The children’s entertainment and party rental business has a collection of “bounce houses,” which are inflatable “houses” that kids can jump in at parties and events. The arsonists wasted no time in dousing the bounce houses and the surrounding area with cans of gasoline. Meanwhile, a security camera caught the group on film.

When the arsonists attempted to light all of the gasoline, they had a hard time doing so. Eventually, the flame caught, causing an intense flash fire in the warehouse. Incidentally, one of the arsonists’ feet caught on fire, too, but it is unknown at this time is he or she sustained serious injuries. The arsonists fled the warehouse and the fire broke the windows of a nearby truck. Rides, Slides and Games, Inc. is owned by Coral Springs resident Demosthenes Trivilis, 39.

Watch the Rides, Slides, and Games Pompano Beach arson suspects, from the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office aggravated felonies division, the Pompano Beach Fire Marshal, and the Florida statewide Fire Marshal’s Office are all investigating. The arsonists should seek the counsel of an experienced Broward criminal attorney if and when they are caught.

The Florida arson statute is straightforward. In order to convict these suspects, the Broward State Attorney’s Office will have to show that they damaged, either by fire or explosion, a structure. The definition of a structure is very broad and includes buildings as well as tents, boats, airplanes, and barns. Additionally, the damage from the fire must be caused willfully and unlawfully or alternatively, it can be caused when committing another felony. For instance, if a burglar knocks over a candle that sets fire the house he has broken into, it does not matter that he did not cause the fire on purpose. It is enough that he was already committing a felony at that location. There is a popular myth that you can only commit arson when it is another person’s property, but that is incorrect. Burning your own home down if you did so willfully can qualify as arson. In October, a group of south Floridians were arrested for planning to burn a Sunrise home facing foreclosure, presumably to obtain the insurance money prior to losing the home.

Because of the severity of arson, Florida recognizes Arson Awareness Week in May. In 2007 alone, the state Forestry Division handled 589 fires set by arsonists, which burned nearly 110,000 acres of land.

Continue reading " Arsonists Set Pompano Beach Business, Foot Aflame " »

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Posted In: Breaking News , Violent Crimes

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Palm Beach criminal attorney William Moore commends the United States Supreme Court for their just ruling issued yesterday in Chambers vs. United States. Deondery Chambers was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm in Illinois. Previously, Chambers had completed sentences for aggravated robbery, battery, and selling drugs within the vicinity of public housing. He had also been convicted of escape – an offense which, by most definitions, does not include failing to report to prison, which was his actual offense. Chambers pleaded guilty to one count of felon in possession of a gun. Palm Beach criminal lawyer William Moore always counsels clients about all of their rights, including the right to go to trial, before pursuing plea deals on their behalf. Plea deals should only be entered into after consultation with a criminal defense attorney and careful thought on the matter, including ramifications for current probationary status and immigration.

Unfortunately, the trial judge enhanced Chambers’s sentence for the felon in possession of a firearm charged based on his prior record. Chambers was sentenced to 188 months in jail, or close to 16 years. When evaluating the prior record, the judge treated the failure to report to prison charge as an escape, as required by existing law. Any form of escape is classified as a violent offense for purposes of sentencing enhancement. Chambers failed to report for a weekend stint in the jail, as he was permitted to be out during the week.

West Palm Beach criminal defense lawyer William Moore has observed the troubling trends in interpreting “career criminal” legislation, like the kind that increased Chambers’s sentence in this case. The sentence was increased in accordance with the Federal Armed Career Criminal Act. Chambers’s criminal defense lawyer contended that the escape charge was not a true escape from law enforcement and thus not a violent crime. The Department of Justice claimed that “an aversion to penal justice” such as a failure to report to prison is tantamount to escaping from prison.

The United States Supreme Court, in a decision heralded by Chambers’s criminal defense lawyer, unanimously sided with Chambers. Although the justices had different reasons for reaching the same conclusion, the lower court will have to reduce the 188 month sentence substantially.

The Federal Armed Career Criminal Act requires harsh sentencing for all felons convicted of being in illegal possession of a firearm where the felon has three previous convictions for violent felonies. In Chambers’s case, if the failure to report to prison charge is not a violent felony, he should not face the hefty prison sentences required by the law. The Federal Armed Career Criminal Act mandates prison terms of 15 years to life imprisonment for felons in possession of firearms.

Continue reading " Palm Beach Criminal Lawyer – Supreme Court Limits Definition of ‘Violent Felonies’ " »

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Broward County residents are familiar with the insanity defense from watching movies and observing famous cases in the news. Often cited but not well understood, it has become a fixture in popular culture in south Florida and elsewhere. Broward criminal attorney William Moore believes the most famous insanity defense in living memory was that of John Hinckley, the man who shot Ronald Reagan in a failed assassination attempt. Hinckley watched the film Taxi Driver over and over, developing a fascination with child actress Jodie Foster. Hinckley became consumed with his obsession, moving to Connecticut to follow Foster when she enrolled in college, stalking her around New Haven. Foster did not return his interest, so Hinckley devised other plans to impress her, like killing himself in her midst.

Eventually, Hinckley came to believe that the most effective way to get Foster’s attention would be to kill someone who he believed to be her equal – like a president. Failing to get near Jimmy Carter during his tenure, he plotted to shoot President Reagan, eventually firing six shots. Hinckley wounded three others in addition to Reagan, who was hit in the chest by a ricocheting bullet.

Hinckley’s trial was closely followed in Miami (where the weapon was originally assembled), Fort Lauderdale, and throughout south Florida. The jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity, and although he has remained institutionalized since 1982, there was widespread public outrage at the verdict. The insanity defense fell out of favor in the entire country. Broward criminal defense lawyer William Moore believes that the ramifications for the truly mentally ill are unfortunate, as punishment is often favored over treatment.

A number of states revised their insanity defense laws in the aftermath of the Hinckley trial. Florida’s insanity defense law allows defendants to acknowledge that they committed the act for which they have been charged, but argue that they should not be found guilty because they have a mental illness or defect. The defendant’s mental state must have been so severe as to prevent him from knowing what he was doing or the consequences of his crime when he committed the crime. Alternatively, the defendant may have understood what he was doing and the consequences of his actions, but can still invoke the insanity defense if he did not understand that his actions were wrong. The Florida legal insanity defense is the M’Naghten rule, named after a famous English case in the 1840s in which a severely mentally ill man attempted to assassinate the Prime Minister (and mistakenly killed the Prime Minister’s secretary, who M’Naghten believed to be the Prime Minister himself). A slim majority of the states have retained some version of the M’Naghten Rule and four states have eliminated the defense completely. A defendant who is successful in invoking the insanity defense will usually find himself confined to a mental hospital for a long period after the fact.

Recently, a Miami-Dade jury returned a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict. After the Hinckley case, the defense fell out of fashion in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan area. The success of the defense was likely a shock to every Broward criminal lawyer. Johnnie Horne shot his parents and sister repeatedly in 1996; only his sister survived. Horne’s trial was put off for more than ten years because he was not competent to stand trial. The jury seemed to take into account some of Horne’s odd behaviors during the Miami trial, such as crying for no reason and making strange faces. Still, national trends show that jurors are very skeptical of the insanity defense, making Horne’s case a likely anomaly.

Continue reading " Fort Lauderdale Criminal Lawyer: the Insanity Defense Dying – But New Life in Miami-Dade? " »

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Broward criminal lawyer William Moore is familiar with all sorts of legal defenses, including the defense of sleepwalking or a sleep disorder. A 37-year-old man was arrested at his residence in Coral Springs on Sunday night for domestic violence, according to local police. Mark Kaplan is the principal of Falcon Cove Middle School in Weston, Florida, inland of Fort Lauderdale. On Sunday night, his wife called police because her husband was strangling her.

When Coral Springs police arrived at the Kaplan home in response to an emergency domestic violence call, they found Alyson Kaplan, 36, bruised on her neck. Coral Springs police photographed the injuries and the police report indicated that officers believed she was likely to be harmed again in the future. Alyson Kaplan told police that she was sleeping at the time the strangulation began. Further, she explained, she had been the target of a number of attacks by her husband over the past year and a half: poking, scratching, and verbal abuse – even threatening to stab her.

Interestingly, Alyson Kaplan’s account to Coral Springs police on Sunday night was in line with the statements by Mark Kaplan’s criminal defense lawyer on Monday. Alyson Kaplan described the repeated attacks as always happening during the night and, although her husband’s eyes are always open, he seems vacant or asleep. She does not believe he is typically awake during the violence, although she was unable to tell police if he was awake or not during the strangulation.

Mark Kaplan’s criminal defense attorney has said that he hopes the Broward State Attorney’s Office will drop the criminal charge in light of this information. The criminal lawyer contends that Kaplan suffers from a sleep disorder and that he is not aware of his actions during these episodes. Alyson Kaplan, who has been married to Mark Kaplan for 12 years, agreed with the criminal defense lawyer. As she fervently explained to reporters, "I am not pressing any charges, I'm not prosecuting, we are not divorcing. He has a diagnosed medical condition. It is all due to that. He is receiving treatment. I don't feel in harm's way whatsoever."

At this time, the Broward State Attorney’s Office has refused to comment on the case, but criminal charges are still pending. Mark Kaplan stayed at the jail for the remainder of Sunday night and posted a $3,500 bond early on Monday.

In order for a sleep disorder or sleepwalking to be an effective legal defense to a crime, it should be inconsistent with the person’s normal waking behavior. For instance, a jury will more likely believe that a man who is known as gentle and kind was sleepwalking when accused of extremely aggressive or violent behavior at night. Although rare, instances of crimes occurring under these circumstances are documented, and the sleeping perpetrator typically has no memory of the incidents upon waking. In some cases, regular violent behavior may be documented by physicians in a sleep laboratory, but instances of extreme violence may not occur frequently enough for such a method to be a practicable determination of the sleep disorder.

Continue reading " Broward Criminal Attorney: Sleep Disorder Defense in A Domestic Violence Case " »

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Posted In: Violent Crimes

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