Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

disorder conduct of a minor

my daughter is 12 years old. She attends Ramblewood Middle School in coral springs florida. She was attacked by another student in school and she defended her self. She was suspended for 10 days and was arrested for disorderly conduct, so was the other girl. Everyone at the school agrees that the other girl planned to attack my child and hit my child first, when the fight was broken up my daughter stoped yet the other child continued to fight. My daughter defended herself against an attacker and instead of being treated as the victim she is being treated as a criminal. I need to know how to get the charges droped. And I want to file a lawsuit against the police dept. They handcuffed my daughter, fingerprinted her, took her piture and locked her in a jail cell for 2 hours. And at no point in time did they ask my daughter if she needed medical attention. The other child should have been charged with battery and was not. There is also a vidio tape of the fight that no one has reviewed yet!! And they will not allow me to see the tape. thank you for any help you can give me.


Asked on 1/28/04, 3:52 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Dan Akes C. Daniel Akes, Attorney at Law

Re: disorder conduct of a minor

You are going to need to talk with a local lawyer. As far as the criminal charges are concerned, you daughter will be entitled to have a lawyer appointed if you cannot afford one. For the civil lawsuit against the police, you should talk to a local personal injury lawyer. Depending on the facts, the personal injury lawyer might agree to represent her on the criminal charges also. Most personal injury lawyers will offer a free initial consultation. If you have one do both, be sure he has criminal law experience. Many lawyers do both, since both involve trials. It's pretty common in these cases for the police to arrest innocent children, and where they have done so without justification, they need to be sued. Good luck.

Dan

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Answered on 1/28/04, 7:47 pm


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