Domestic Violence Trial: Dismissed

No court on Monday. No jury selection, no battery trial. Why? A prosecutor did the right thing. After far more months of effort than it should have required:

Full case number, personal identification information and fact pattern redacted. Here is the problem with Florida criminal law. 

This domestic violence case should have never been charged. However, it really isn't the police officer's fault: they are required by statute to determine a "primary aggressor" and then somebody is going to jail. That's the law in Florida. If the police are called on a domestic, someone goes to jail.

And when it was investigated, guess what we learned: "the witness did not observe the events that occurred within the premises."  

Also - this is omitted from the Nolle Prosequi -  there was no "victim" in the case, thus no desire to testify. 

The State really tried to crush a Pre-Trial Diversion out of my client. This is now a common practice of how bad cases are handled by the government - a diversion offer where there should be an unconditional dismissal. We had to fight for this result.

Yet at the end of the day, because we were absolutely ready for trial, for the second time in two weeks, a false domestic violence charge was dismissed. When confronted with the facts, the State Attorney agreed to do the right thing on a charge they prosecute seriously.

False Domestic Violence Charges should be dismissed before trial

So . . . ready for trial is announced on Final Plea Day (not to be confused with the erroneously labelled "Plea Day" in Okaloosa County which is actually arraignment court).

In this particular Domestic Violence case, the writing has been on the wall for some time: "[H]e did not hit me" in a written statement, confirmed in person by the State, is usually a sign that the prosecution has a real problem.

As in they will not even come close to proving the case. Yet here I am, loaded for bear, as one lawyer put it, right after court:

 

What is wrong with this picture taken after court this morning, besides having to wear a super serious Jury Selection suit, a cheesy smile and lower my hair? Is it the weekend spent preparing for trial, all for nothing? No. Not at all.

What's wrong with this picture is that my client was forced to risk jail time for a crime he did not commit. 

What's wrong with this picture is that the politically correct "plea bargain" the State wanted included fines, court costs, cost of supervision, and twenty-six (26) weeks of "domestic abuser" counseling for a crime they know he did not commit.

What's wrong with this picture is that I was even at the courthouse for this appearance to pick a jury on a trash case: there were over fifty (50) cases on the docket for a two (2) week trial calendar and there is no way fifty cases are going to get tried in a two week period. Jurors were called, their time set on fire, and case after case was dismissed.

What's really, really wrong with this picture is that Domestic Legal Violence against innocent people is out of control. Oh - and that I have another case, in the same courthouse with a similar fact pattern next week.

Domestic Violence is a serious social, legal, political, moral and criminal justice problem. False Domestic Violence charges are just as big of a problem, but we aren't hearing about it. False allegations of Domestic Violence are just not taken seriously by the criminal justice system. Lip service doesn't count. Especially when this man was wondering all weekend if something could go wrong, and a group of strangers might actually convict him, a judge might send him to jail, and because of the nature of a domestic violence conviction, if his military related career would be history before he was released.

Upon reviewing the facts of this case, a Nolle Prosequi dismissing this case should have been filed weeks ago. Instead, taxpayer money and people's most valuable asset - their time - was wasted. 

Note: not all prosecutors use this bullying tactic to crush a plea out of someone for a non-existent crime. I know several who do not. 

Yet far too many do.