Criminal Defense Overview 

Experienced Central Florida, Criminal Defense Attorneys

Friends don't let friends plead guilty!

If you have been charged with a crime, don't walk into a court and enter a guilty plea without knowing what the consequences will be. That guilty plea will follow you around for the rest of your life.

If you have been charged of a crime either by traffic citation, notice to appear or formal arrest you are probably asking yourself the following questions:

What do I do now?                                                      

When arrested or noticed to appear, you are given a future court date in which you must appear before the judge. At that time, the judge will formally read the charges against you and ask how you want to go forward. If you decide you want to resolve the case, the prosecutor will give you an offer and you are free to accept or reject the offer. In our experiences as former prosecutors, the offer given to you at arraignment will be not be favorable. The prosecutor has not had time to review the evidence in your case. In many circumstances, the prosecutor does not even have a file prepared for the proceeding. Therefore, the prosecutors give a “high” offer in order to cover themselves, as they know nothing about the facts and circumstances of your case.

If you have decided to hire the firm of Jaeger & Blankner, we will file the necessary paperwork with the clerk of court and waive your appearance at arraignment. We will appear on your behalf and enter a plea of not guilty and set your case for a pretrial conference with the court.

The pretrial conference is scheduled about a month after the arraignment date. If the necessary paperwork has been filed, you will not have to appear at the pretrial conference. At this stage of your case, the prosecutor should have sent a copy of all the evidence in your case. During a pretrial conference, the prosecutor gives a formal “offer” and the judge asks the status of the case. Your case may be set for trial, plea, or it may be postponed to schedule hearings such as a motion to suppress.

Other issues that arise at pretrial conference may include the following situation: If the prosecutor fails to provide all of the evidence in your case, you may be entitled to a range of sanctions against the State of Florida, which may include a postponement of your case without waiving any of your constitutional rights, suppression of evidence or witnesses, and in some circumstances and outright dismissal of your case.

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What options are available to me? 

Plea Negotiation

Plea negotiations take place throughout your case in the form of meetings with the prosecutor, pretrial conference, and plea conferences. The goal of a plea negotiation is to come to a favorable resolution of the case, which begins with an “offer” from the prosecutor or judge. If the offer is unfavorable, then litigation is the course of action.

First Time Offenders/Certain Repeat Offenders

For first time offenders/certain repeat offenders, there are a wide variety of programs available depending on the facts and circumstances of your case as well as your criminal history. If you are eligible for pretrial diversion, pretrial intervention or drug court and you successfully complete the program; your charges will be dropped.

However, just because your charges may be dropped does not mean there will be no evidence that you were arrested for the offense for which you were charged. Why is this important to you? For one thing, law enforcement routinely “run tags” and access your arrest record with their laptop computers. For example, upon seeing that you have an arrest for theft, drug possession, DUI, they may continue to follow your vehicle until they determine they are able to pull you or your vehicle over and detain you for purposes of an investigation. Another example is your employer may run a background check on you and learn that you were previously arrested despite the fact the charges were dropped, which may result in termination of employment. Likewise, your insurance company has the same access to your criminal history and may raise your rates or even drop your policy depending on the crime for which you were arrested.

Even if you are candidate for one of the three programs, you still need a lawyer to advise you on the pros and cons of each of these programs as well as what to do after you have completed the program. You may be eligible for sealing and/or expunging evidence of your arrest upon the successful completion of these programs. It is important to not only remove any record of your arrest from a “rap sheet” or background check, but you must also remove any record that may be accessed by law enforcement and the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. You need a lawyer to guide you through this process to determine whether these programs should be accepted or whether to fight the case through litigation and trial.

Pretrial Diversion

Pretrial Diversion is a offered by the State Attorney’s Office and depending on the facts and circumstances of your case generally involve a term of probation, community service, classes for rehabilitation, substance abuse treatment program, random testing at your expense, fines including cost of supervision, cost of prosecution, cost of law enforcement investigation, court costs, as well as other sanctions depending on the nature of your charges. Upon completing the program, the State Attorney’s Office will drop your charges.

Pretrial Intervention

Pretrial Intervention is a program offered by the Court and may be used for repeat offenders in certain circumstances. Similar to the State Attorney’s pretrial diversion program, the Court may order you to complete a term of probation, community service, classes for rehabilitation, substance abuse treatment program, random testing at your expense, fines including cost of supervision, cost of prosecution, cost of law enforcement investigation, court costs, as well as other sanctions depending on the nature of your charges. Upon successfully completing the program, the Court will drop your charges.

Drug Court

Drug Court is intended for repeat offenders who suffer from drug addiction. The program involves weekly supervision and an extensive substance abuse treatment program that can last anywhere from eighteen to twenty four months.

Litigation

If plea negotiations are unsuccessful, the next course of action is to litigate your case. This may be done in a couple of ways. Prior to trial, we will file motions to suppress or motion to dismiss, depending on the facts of your case. If either or both motions are unsuccessful, then upon your approval, the next step will be try the case before a jury.

Motion to Suppress (evidence/statements)

A motion to suppress is a hearing in which the Firm of Jaeger & Blankner will challenge the constitutionality of the officer’s ability to stop you or your vehicle, detain you for purposes of conducting an investigation, and conduct an arrest. In addition, there may be other challenges which include statements unlawfully taken in violation of your Miranda rights and issues regarding consent to search your person, vehicle, house, etc. A motion to suppress is similar to a trial in that the prosecutor will call the officer to the witness stand and elicit testimony as to why the officer detained you, including unusual observations that led the officer to believe that a crime was occurring. After cross examination, both sides will present a “closing argument” to the Court, which may include references to case law as well as the facts that were presented from the witness stand. Depending on the Court’s ruling, the prosecutor may be prohibited from using some or all of the evidence against you, which may reopen negotiations or even result in the prosecutor dropping the charges against you.

Motion to Dismiss

Generally there are three types of motions to dismiss, which if successful will result in the court dropping the charges against you.

• The undisputed facts do not support the crime for which you are charged
• The prosecutor failed to bring you t o trial within a certain amount of time from the point you were  arrested in violation of your right to speedy trial
• The case has gotten so old that it is in violation of the Statute of Limitations

Trial

If the motion to suppress/motion to dismiss is unsuccessful, the Firm of Jaeger & Blankner is fully prepared to bring your case before a jury in order to prove your case. For a better understanding of our mission and philosophy, please visit our Firm Overview page. 

 

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WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A WITHHOLD OF ADJUDICATION AND AN ADJUDICATION OF GUILT?

Florida judges have a special authority to “withhold adjudication” after the judge orders a term of probation as a sanction to entering a plea of guilt.  A withhhold of adjudication is a compromise in numerous plea negotiations in which the prosecutor acquiesces to “withhold adjudication of guilt” upon successful completion of the term of probation ordered by the court.  Once the term of probation is successfully completed, the court no longer has jurisdiction and there is no “adjudication of guilt.”  For example, in the case of a misdemeanor charge, “withholds” allow the defendant to escape collateral consequences such as mandatory driver license revocations for drug convictions.  In the case of certain felonies charges, the defendant is able to escape adjudication as a “convicted felon” and forfeiture of his/her civil rights such as the right to vote, hold public office, serve on a jury, and possess a firearm. 

Am I facing jail time for the charges against me?

Jail

If you are facing potential jail time, there may still be some options available to you.

·       Home Confinement: Through electronic monitoring by ankle bracelet, you may be eligible to serve your jail sentence at home with the ability to leave your residence for employment purposes only. To be eligible, the Court must have no objection and you must be pre-screened for entry into the program.

·       Residential Treatment Program: At the Court’s discretion, you may be able to serve your jail sentence at a residential substance abuse treatment program. The residential treatment program provides intensive residential therapy for people with alcohol or drug dependency and/or co-occurring mental health disorders. Services may be funded by private insurance or accepted on a self-pay sliding fee scale based on your income.

·       Work Release: The Work Release Center provides supervised dormitory-type housing for inmates who maintain employment in the community. To be eligible, the Court must have no objection to your entry and you must be pre-screened for entry into the program. 

·         Community Control (Level 1):   Community control is a form of intensive supervised house arrest in the community, including surveillance on weekends and holidays.  It is a means of last resort before the imposition of incarceration to jail/prison sentence.  Community control is an individualized program in which the freedom of the offender is restricted within the community, home or non-institutional residential placement, and specified sanctions are imposed and enforced. As with a violation of probation, violation of any community control condition may result in any sentence that could have been imposed by the court before placing the offender of community control supervision. Community Control (Level 2):  The use of electronic monitoring as an enhancement to community control is utilized through an ankle monitor for continued surveillance of the offender. The units are monitored on a 24-hour a day basis by private vendors who immediately report all curfew violations to probation staff for further investigation.

 

After my case is resolved, what concerns should I have?

Sealing and Expungements

In certain circumstances, you may be eligible to have your record sealed and even expunged depending on the nature of your charges as well as your criminal history.

A sealed record occurs upon motion by the petitioner to have a charge/offense physically sealed so that a private party/employer is prevented from learning of its content. However, in certain circumstances your record may be allowed viewed by certain state and law enforcement agencies. Generally, the requirements to be eligible for sealing your record include: