Drug Offenses & Drug Trafficking

February 22, 2024

How Florida Prosecutors’ Inappropriate Comments to a Jury Led to a Reversed Conviction

Everyone has the right to be tried by a jury of their peers, and for that trial to be fair. The many protections enshrined in Florida law to protect a criminal defendant’s right to a fair trial exist to ensure justice; in other words, to make certain an accused person doesn’t receive a conviction or a punishment not supported by the evidence. Trials often become unfair when prosecutors overstep the bounds of what they can say to the jury. The potential for prosecutorial overstep is one reason among many why, if you’re on trial, you need a knowledgeable Tampa Bay criminal defense lawyer advocating for you.

A recent drug case from our northeast is a prime example. The accused, A.S., had had multiple run-ins with law enforcement. In 2019, officers in Duval County executed a search warrant on the home where A.S. lived. They found drugs but the state did not charge the man after that search.

In 2020, officers executed another search warrant on the same home. Again, they found drugs. This time, the state charged the man with multiple drug crimes including trafficking in eutylone, which is a type of synthetic bath salt.

November 21, 2023

Discovery Violations by Prosecutors and Richardson Hearings in Florida

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

Many procedural details go into the pretrial, trial, and post-conviction phases of presenting a defense. It is important to have a Tampa Bay criminal defense lawyer who is fully immersed in the knowledge of all of these details, as any one of them may be the key you need to a dismissal, an acquittal, or a reversal of your conviction.

One area where that’s especially true is the rules regarding discovery violations.

As an example of how important a prosecutorial discovery violation can be, we have this recent drug case from Lee County.

May 23, 2023

How the Police Can Violate Your Fourth Amendment Rights in a Traffic Stop… and What It Potentially Can Mean to Your Florida Criminal Case

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

There are many ways in which law enforcement officers can overstep or misstep in conducting a warrantless search pursuant to a traffic stop. When they do, those errors may mean the search was unconstitutional and you are entitled to suppression of the proof they found. This blog post will look at a couple of ways that officers can err. Keep in mind that, when an officer missteps, a skilled Tampa Bay criminal defense lawyer can be essential to success in court when it comes to the suppression of evidence seized in an illegal search.

An example of one of the ways police can violate your rights comes from one of our sister states… California. The accused was a man driving in the Bay Area when the police pulled him over for two minor traffic violations. The time required to check for outstanding warrants, confirm the validity of the driver’s license, registration, and insurance, and decide whether or not to write a ticket took roughly 3 1/2 minutes.

But the stop didn’t end there. Allegedly, an officer suspected the driver of being under the influence of drugs, so he ordered him out of the car and conducted field sobriety tests, which the driver passed. This took roughly six additional minutes. But the stop didn’t end there, either.

April 25, 2023

What Florida Law Says About Warrantless Searches Police Perform Pursuant to a Baker Act Detention

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

A lot of criminal prosecutions — especially ones related to firearms or drug crimes — involve evidence seized as a result of a warrantless search. If that’s you, one of the most important parts of your defense is contesting the legality of the search and the admissibility of evidence seized in it. When it comes to suppressing evidence seized as part of a warrantless search, having representation provided by a skilled Tampa Bay criminal defense lawyer can be critical to your success.

One exception to the search warrant rule is something called a “search incident to an arrest.” If the officer has made a valid arrest, the officer can conduct a reasonable search to ensure his/her safety, such as searching for weapons.

Arrests are not the only reason that law enforcement officers involuntarily detain people. Each year, many thousands of people are involuntarily detained across Florida based on mental health concerns. According to research from the University of South Florida, officers performed roughly 200,000 of these mental health (a/k/a “Baker Act”) detentions in each of the last three years. This raises a question critical for many of those people: how much warrantless searching can the officer do?

October 26, 2022

Constitutional Search and Seizure Protections and How to Go About Seeking Suppression of Evidence in Your Florida Drug Possession Case

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

Here in Florida (and around the United States,) you have the right to be free of intrusive interactions with the police unless the officers have a reasonable basis for detaining you. If the police confront you without the proper reasoning for doing so, then any incriminating evidence they seized in that interaction may be inadmissible against you at trial. Getting that evidence suppressed requires a properly timed motion, supported by a well-stated argument in support of it. Given how critical these kinds of motions and arguments can be to the success of your defense — and therefore to your ultimate freedom — it is vital that you have a knowledgeable Tampa Bay criminal defense lawyer on your side.

A recent drug possession case from Pasco County shows how the police can overstep their bounds and what you can do when that happens.

In the summer of 2019, New Port Richey police officers responded to a motel where a housekeeper had found a gun in a vacant room. The motel manager provided the names of the man and woman who had last rented the room. The officers discovered that the man was a middle-aged white man named Keith, who was “of average build and height.” They also discovered that the gun was stolen and that Keith was a convicted felon.

November 8, 2021

Vehicle Air Fresheners in Florida: What a 16-Year-Old Ruling Says About When the Police Can (and Can’t) Pull You Over

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

Many criminal cases, including those here in Florida, begin not with a police search executed pursuant to a valid search warrant, but with a traffic stop. In a significant percentage of those cases, that initial stop was unlawful, which means that all the evidence obtained as a result of that stop should be suppressed at trial. Getting that gun, those drugs, or other evidence excluded from your criminal case requires a skillfully crafted and coherently advanced motion to suppress, and that represents just one of the multitude of places where a knowledgeable Tampa Bay criminal defense lawyer can make the difference between conviction and acquittal.

Traffic stops have, of course, been in the news lately, including to our north. D.W., a Minnesota man, was pulled over by police and, eventually, was fatally shot by one of those officers. Police said that they pulled D.W. over for an expired license plate but, shortly before his death, D.W. told his mother that he believed the police had pulled him over for the air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror.

In Minnesota, things like air fresheners and fuzzy dice hanging from your rearview mirror are a valid basis for pulling you over. But here in Florida, the air freshener you have hanging from your rearview mirror cannot be the grounds for a valid traffic stop and, if the police do that, then any evidence they find is something you potentially can get suppressed. We know this because of a 2005 case decided by the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland.

August 5, 2021

What to Do If You are Arrested for Drug Possession: Dos and Don’ts

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

Many people assume the police are more particular about arresting violent offenders than those who are involved in drug-related crimes. Surprisingly, the opposite is true. In 2016, the FBI estimated that there were 1,572,579 arrests throughout the United States for drug-related crimes.

Whether you are arrested for having heroin, LSD, cocaine, or methamphetamine on your person or are found in possession of prescription medications, you are likely facing serious jail time.

This is especially true if you don’t have the help and guidance of a drug possession attorney and you don’t know how to conduct yourself accordingly before or during your arrest. If you are facing drug possession charges, do yourself a favor and keep the following dos and don’ts in mind:

July 16, 2021

Impounding of Vehicles and Illegal Inventory Searches in Drug Cases in Florida

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

The State of Florida has some of the harshest drug laws of any state in the country. Depending on what charges the state brings against you, you may be facing extended jail time dictated by mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Given how profoundly harmful, or even life-changing, a drug conviction can be, it is essential to arm yourself with a skilled Tampa Bay criminal defense lawyer if you’ve been charged with this kind of crime.

There are lots of ways the right attorney can help. Most people facing drug charges were not spotted by the police standing on a street corner or in a parking lot holding a quantity of illegal drugs out in the open. Rather, many of these charges arise subsequent to other kinds of stops initiated by the police, including routine traffic stops. Sometimes, those stops and/or the searches that stem from them were illegal.

When that happens, you can, through your capable legal counsel, potentially get the drug evidence seized in that stop thrown out, which may create a massive hole in the prosecution’s case against you. Let’s look at the recent drug case of a man in Charlotte County that lays out a pretty typical example of how these kinds of arrests can happen, and how you can get the evidence tossed.

April 8, 2020

The Prosecutor in My Florida Criminal Trial Misstated the Law to the Jury. What Can Be Done About That?

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

There are several things that can happen in your drug crime trial that can make the process unfairly tilted against you. Things like a prosecutor’s misstatement of the law in closing arguments may confuse and/or prejudice the jury, thus entitling you to a reversal if you’re eventually convicted. However, it is possible that you could lose your opportunity to make that winning appeals argument if you don’t make the right objections during your trial. In other words, at every step during your criminal trial process, it is essential to know what to do and when. That is one of the many areas where it is invaluable to have a skilled Tampa Bay drug crime defense attorney on your side.

J.L.A.’s case is an example of an appeal that succeeded, in part, due to correct actions that were taken at trial. J.L.A. was on trial for drug trafficking. According to J.L.A., he was riding with his long-time friend, Malcolm, when a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Deputy pulled the pair over in a traffic stop. Malcolm allegedly handed his friend a bottle and said, “Tuck this.” J.L.A. testified that, as he hid the bottle, he though it contained marijuana.

The bottle did not contain marijuana. It contained more than 200 pills, including hydromorphone, oxycodone, and alprazolam. The deputy found the bottle and the pills after conducting a pat-down search.

January 9, 2020

What is the ‘Exclusionary Rule’ and How Can It Help Me Keep Harmful Evidence out of a Criminal Case in Florida?

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

Many people may be familiar with the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution and its protection against illegal searches and seizures. Fewer people may be familiar with is the “exclusionary rule.’ This rule is something that may help you to get harmful evidence thrown out in your case if the police obtained that evidence through an illegal arrest. To get the proof suppressed, though, you still have to know what the correct legal rules are and the correct way to go about seeking suppression. In other words, you need to be sure that you have a knowledgeable Tampa Bay criminal defense attorney on your side working to protect your rights.

J.R.D.’s case was one that involved this rule and was an important victory for anyone illegally arrested due to mistakes made by the police. The case arose from a police stop of J.R.D. and his identical twin brother. The officer did a computer check and the sheriff’s department’s computerized warrant system said that both brothers had outstanding warrants. The officer called dispatch to confirm that the computer information was correct. The dispatcher told the officer that J.R.D. had an outstanding warrant, but his brother did not.

The officer arrested J.R.D. and, after searching him, found illegal drugs. On the way to the jail, the officer discovered that both the computer and the dispatcher were wrong – J.R.D. did not have any outstanding warrants. (It turns out that his brother did and he did not.) Despite this revelation, the officer took J.R.D. to jail and the state charged him for possession of controlled substance.