Channel 12 News in Jacksonville Florida reports that hundreds of DUI cases may need to be reexamined after an internal investigation into Laura Barfied, an expert witness. The report found that Barfied used a state credit card for personal purchases including cruise ship tickets. Barfield was an expert who testified about breathalyzer results at DUI trials.
A 52-year-old from Michigan was arrested after blowing a .034 and .036, which are levels well under the legal limit of .08. The arresting officer was FHP Trooper Melvin J. Arthur who has handed out far more citations to women than men. The arrested driver wants the charges dismissed. Channel 10 News has more on this…
Tallahassee is considering a bill that would allow some first-time DUI offenders to choose to have interlock devices installed on their car for a year rather than having their license revoked. The bill, HB 479, is targeted toward DUI defendants with a blood-alcohol content (BAC) of less than .15 with no passengers under 18. The court…
After speeding and crossing the center line, Missouri police stopped Tyler McNeely. After declining a breath test he was arrested and transported to a hospital where he refused to a blood test. The officer instructed a lab tech to take the sample. After the BAC tested above the legal limit, McNeely was charged with Driving…
The Florida Supreme Court has come back with a decision in favor the defendent in Florida v. Joelis Jardines. In this case the police took a drug sniffing dog on the property of a homeowner suspected of growing marijuana. At the front door, the dog allegedly sensed one of the odors it was trained to detect.…
Middle District of Florida Federal Court. Oxycodone and Medicare Fraud case.
Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech giving credit to defenders on the 50th Anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright. This was the landmark case that ruled that state courts under the Fourteenth Amendment must provide counsel to defendants of criminal cases who are unable to afford attorneys on their own. The case began from a 1961 burglary…
An appellate rule requires “extraordinary” circumstances to sentence outside of guidelines range. While the 11th Circuit has never found reason to deny an upward variance sentence, they have on occasion found downward variance sentences to be unreasonable. In this case the appellant plead guilty to a five year health care fraud scheme of $3 million.…
Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech giving crIncome tax refund thefts are on the rise along with identity theft that it often starts with. In Miami recently, two police officers have been arrested for corruption and fraud as they used the state driver’s license database to gain information on 1000 identities and then file bogus…
