Tampa Bay Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
Pinellas County prosecutors have decided to drop charges against two (2) men who got into a humorous fist fight at a St. Petersburg City Council meeting.
Frederick Dudley and Ronald Deaton were arrested in October after they began throwing punches during an argument over a decision to privatize a public sidewalk.
The men, ages 76 and 61, respectively, were charged with Disorderly Conduct.Assistant State Attorney Richard Ripplinger said authorities have “better things to do than prosecute a couple of old men who got angry in the heat of the moment.” In my opinion, while the State of Florida got this one right, we unfortunately see many silly and ridiculous prosecutions in the Tampa Bay area that should be dropped like this one (especially in today’s economic climate with our government working with limited resources).
The decision to cede the public sidewalk fronting the downtown BayWalk entertainment complex had been the subject of intense debate for weeks.
For more information on this story, including a link to the actual video of the infamous fight, please check out this Bay News 9 link.
The Blake & Dorsten, P.A. in Clearwater handles all criminal and traffic-related matters throughout the Tampa Bay area. Many of the cases handled by criminal attorney Nicholas J. Dorsten, Esq. have been written about in various news outlets such as the St. Pete Times, The Tampa Tribune, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, the New York Times, the Tampa Bay Business Journal and the tbt*.
If your case requires an experienced and aggressive representation, the Blake & Dorsten, P.A. will be there for you. 365/24/7.
To speak directly with attorney Nicholas J. Dorsten, Esq., please call 727.286.6141 or email Nicholas at: info@blakedorstenlaw.com