Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

Re: Holding a person in jail without a charge

If the person has a bond, they can always bond out. If the bond is too high, then the person needs to request a bond reduction. If the person has no bond or cannot afford to bond out at all, then the following rules apply.

The state can hold a person in jail for up to 30 days without filing formal charges. If formal charges are not filed by the 30th day, a person can request release on recognizance and if no charges are filed by the 33rd day the person is released. The state can ask for a 5 day extension upon showing good cause.

However, the person is not out of the woods. Once release, the state still has, from the date of arrest, 90 days to file misdemeanor charges and 175 days to file felony charges.

Finally, if the state does file formal charges within 33 days and the person is still in jail, the person can request an adversarial preliminary hearing after 21 days to challenge the probable cause determination in felony cases.

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Re: Holding a person in jail without a charge

I think you are misunderstanding the concept of being held without charges. A person cannot be pulled off the street and held with no bond without a police charge for which there is probable cause. That is very different than waiting in jail for formal charges to be filed. A first appearance was held in your case and probable cause was found. I see no constitutional violations here.