In State v. Fortin, 2024 Fla.App.LEXIS 2133 (March 20, 2024), the Fourth District reaffirmed the continued validity of the plain view and plain smell doctrines despite recent changes in Florida law concerning medical marijuana and hemp. The appellate court reversed a trial court order granting the defendant’s motion to suppress, stating that “as a matter of law, the officer’s visual....

When a unanimous verdict may not be unanimous… In Parsons v. State, 376 So. 3d 747 (Fla. 4th DCA 2024), Mr. Parsons was convicted and sentenced for giving false information to a pawnbroker, dealing in stolen property, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of alprazolam, and possession of hydromorphone. Mr. Parsons only appealed the convictions on the counts charging him with....

Unit of Prosecution under the Patient Brokering Act “South Florida still tops healthcare fraud in the United States”, correctly stated a Miami Herald article headline in September 2021. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article254314853.html. Indeed, South Florida is a hot spot for fraud schemes which defraud Medicare and Medicaid, according to the Office of the Inspector General for the United States Department of Health and....

America’s Shoplifting Epidemic and Florida Law Recent articles, see e.g., https://nypost.com/2023/07/01/the-shoplifting-epidemic-taking-over-america, report that the United States is experiencing a organized “shoplifting epidemic” with an estimated annual cost to retail store of $100 Billion as of 2021. Walmart stores have closed in Portland and Chicago, drug store thefts in New York City have become all too common. In Baltimore, a landmark grocery....

Even Defense Lawyers Need a Good Defense Lawyer Sometimes… The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Rocque v. State, 312 So. 3d 498 (Fla. 4th DCA 2021) dealt with an appeal from the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County (Judge Jill K. Levy). The trial judge, in issuing a contempt order against a lawyer who was defending a client in a DUI case,....

“Truth is stranger than fiction” – How can this happen in America? In Chapper v. State, 351 So. 3d 235 (Fla. 2d DCA 2022), a three-judge panel of the appellate court reversed Mr. Chapper’s conviction for obstructing a police officer without violence. The “unique facts” of the case presented a “novel question: can talking loudly on the phone in the vicinity of....