Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

I have a question regarding an active criminal case in Hillsborough County Florida. This is a friend of mine, that was residing on my property at the time of his arrest. I am hoping somebody can explain why this friend of mine is still locked up and is not only not getting time served but is getting a longer sentence. I was present at the time of the arrest, when the police showed up, they claimed they were acting on a Crime Stopper Tip, what they were indeed acting on was a false tip, given to them by a past tenant of mine, that had visited my friend the night before and given him 2 tenths of Crystal meth and a glass pipe that is used to smoke it with, in hopes this would result in an arrest, to help him get a reduced sentence. My friend placed these items into the broken refrigerator that night prior to this arrest. The police showed up the next afternoon, with no warrant, went right to this broken refrigerator took these items out a charged my friend with possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia. My friend having never been arrested in his life, not even having so much as a speeding ticket and believing the police in Hillsborough County are honest and fair. When told to sign by the X he would be assured nobody else present (his teenage daughter and baby and myself) would have to go to jail, if he did not sign then we would all go. After arresting my friend and leaving the property, the same police officers returned only to tell me, if I wanted to help my friend I to would sign right under his name. Not aware of what either one of us were signing. When this fact was brought up in the court room the police officer had no problem in admitting to all of this, including returning after the fact to have me sign under my friends name neglecting to tell me this was a warrant I was signing. When the public defender, was actually attempting to get justice for my friend, requested the evidence be suppressed due to the fact it was obtained, illegally. The Judge stated she was going to allow the evidence anyways no matter how it was obtained. This brings me to my 1st question, Do Judges hold the power to go above the law and allow such things? The public defender was very apologetic and stated at this point it was out of her hands. The best thing she could do would be to make one last attempt of an appeal but told us not to get our hopes up! Now he finds himself in drug court getting sentenced. First visit urine test shows positive for crystal Meth so he is violated placed in jail for 20 days (at this time My friend detoxes from his real addiction oxycodone, that he has legally been prescribed for the last 3 yrs. due to an injury he sustained at work.) While incarcerated he is given valium to help with the detoxing off of oxycodone. Upon release he is feeling good and has been ready to get off of prescription drugs for a while but did not know how to go about it. He has now accepted the fact he was railroaded, he will just do this drug probation with no problem because his real addition is behind him now. He goes to his first appointed evaluation does another urinalysis fails again for something he does not even recognize the name. Now he is confused and knows he is going to be put back in jail, without receiving any credit on his sentence. Fed up, he absconders, is picked up in a different county, is once again brought back to jail now is locked up for over 30 days waiting on Medical Records from the jail to be released to the judge so that she can see that the violation was indeed the valium he was given when he was initially locked up for the 20 days detoxing off of oxycodone. This brings me to my 2nd question, Why would the now 50 days he has spent behind bars not go towards possibly time served, at that very least on the drug paraphernalia charge? Instead he is looking at a possible additional 6mths placed on his already 3yr drug probation. My last question is do the courts not take into consideration that my friend is a 40yr old man that has never had as much as a traffic ticket in his entire life, who was arrested unlawfully (with the admittance of the arresting officer.) Please tell me what I am missing here? Due to being placed in jail, my friend has lost his truck, his job an now his license. He is now also behind in his court ordered child support payments, this is now causing his children to suffer to. Is there any way to see this case as justifiable? I realize I am no lawyer or really know much about laws of Florida (Hillsborough County) at all but I like to think, I know the difference between right and wrong and I am having a very hard time seeing anything right about this case at all. I am not really sure how this drug court works maybe there is something there I am missing? Thank You for listening.


Asked on 6/07/13, 9:12 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Craig Epifanio Craig Epifanio, P.A.

I'm not sure if some or all of these questions got answered by an attorney you may have called, but this forum is not the proper venue to ask such detailed questions. These kinds of questions take time and you may need to hire an attorney for a consultation or find one that does free consultations. In person, you can give the attorney all the details to your questions so that they can be properly answered.

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Answered on 6/20/13, 8:12 am


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