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....

Confronting the Evidence and Making the Right Objections In Bennett v. State, 352 So. 3d 15 (Fla. 4th DCA 2022), defendant was adjudicated guilty of driving under the influence of controlled substances, and he appealed, arguing that the trial court violated his Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause right by admitting a urinalysis toxicology report where the actual author of the report did....

When a Judge Cannot Judge You! In Wagner v. State, 342 So 3d 712 (Fla. 2d DCA 2022), the state appellate court granted a petition for a writ of probation seeking review of a trial judge’s decision to deny Mr. Wagner’s motion to disqualify his trial judge, and ordered the chief judge of the circuit court to appoint a successor judge.....

Hot off the press – State confesses error – 4th DCA orders new trial Christopher Parsons was convicted and sentenced for providing false information to a pawnbroker and for dealing in stolen property.  Parsons appealed, arguing that fundamental error occurred because the jury verdict was possibly not unanimous. Based on the State’s confession of error, the Fourth District agreed and....

LOOKING AT LU JING v. STATE Case No. 4D21-147 arrived to the three-judge appellate panel of the Fourth District clothed in spy novel mystique: a female Chinese national resisting arrest after allegedly trespassing onto the grounds of United States President Donald Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach. Defendant was convicted of resisting a police officer without violence contrary to....