Florida Criminal Attorney Blog

Officer Justin Krashefski, 27, of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, was relieved of duty Wednesday after detectives searched his patrol car and found three oxycodone pills, a razor blade, and a straw. He is now facing criminal prosecution for Possession of Oxycodone, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, and Solicitation to Commit a Felony.

This search was conducted after a confidential informant allegedly told investigators that Ofc. Krashefski had contacting him about buying pills.

Acting on the tip, investigators then set up a sting operation. The informant was given five pills and was sent to meet Ofc. Krashefski. While investigators surveilled the meeting, Krashefski was allegedly seen buying the pills for $20.

Ofc. Krashefski has since been arrested and was being held with a bond of $4,500.00. Even though, he is facing a maximum of 11 years in prison, he will likely get nothing worse than probation because he is a first time offender.

It is unknown whether or not Krashefski has retained a criminal defense lawyer to represent him in this case.

Krashefski may also be a good candidate for drug court. If so, he will have to subject himself to a drug evaluation, any recommended treatment, including detox and aftercare, as well as regular drug testing. If he is able to successfully complete the program, Krasehfski's case will be dismissed by the court.

Continue reading "Fort Lauderdale Cop Arrested for Drug Possession" »

Earlier today, members of the Broward Sheriff's Office, including K-9 units, arrested Dawson Johnson, 31, in North Lauderdale, Florida, for the alleged murder of his 79 year old neighbor, Samuel McWhorter. According to McWhorter's family, Johnson has been known to them since he was a baby. In fact, McWhorter's granddaughter, Shanile Quince-Wyche, said that she was friends with Johnson's sisters and even changed his diapers as a baby. It is unknown whether or not Johnson has retained a criminal defense lawyer at this time.

While a motive for the alleged murder is presently unknown, McWhorter was supposedly found dead in a bloody crime scene located at his home. According to one of McWhorter's daughters, Lenora McWhorter, the crime scene was "really brutal." She also said, "Things have not come to light yet, but they will, and you're going to be even more upset when you hear the rest of it."

Because Johnson has been arrested for a life felony, he does not have an automatic right to bond. In cases like these, a motion must be made to a judge requesting a special hearing called an "Arthur Hearing." During these hearings, a judge will examine evidence presented by the prosecution to determine if there are grounds to set a bond.

Continue reading "North Lauderdale Man Arrested by BSO for Murder of Elderly Neighbor" »

This case concerns an appeal in the Fourth District Court of Appeals located by Leonard Minus in West Palm Beach, Florida. As a condition of his probation, Minus was ordered to have no direct or indirect contact with the alleged victim in his case. After making a phone call to the alleged victim's mother, Minus was charged with violating his probation. A final hearing was had and the trial court ruled that Minus willfully and substantially violated his probation because calling the victim's mother constituted indirect contact.

Minus then successfully appealed his case. His conviction has been reversed and the appellate court has ordered that Minus' probation and community control be reinstated.

When analyzing a violation of probation, it is first important to realize that there are a number of very important legal standards that must be met before a judge can find that a person has in fact violated their probation. First and foremost, the prosecutor is the one, and the only one, with a burden of proof. While a good criminal defense lawyer will aggressively challenge the State's case, it is important to recognize that the defense has no duty to do or prove anything.

However, it is equally important to remember that the burden of proof is much lower in a violation of probation. In "normal" criminal cases, the prosecutor must prove each and every material allegation beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt. In a violation of probation, the prosecutor must only prove the allegations by a "preponderance of the evidence." In non-legal terms, that means the prosecutor must simply "tip the scale" just enough to prove that there is more proof of guilt than there is of non-guilt.

Whether or not someone "willfully" violated their probation is a question of fact. In order for an appellate court to overturn a trial court's finding that a person "willfully" violated their probation, the court record must show that there was no competent evidence to support the finding.

The case of Wilson v. State, 781 So. 2d 1185, 1187 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001) presented an allegation similar to Mr. Minus' case. However, in the Wilson case, there was no evidence that the defendant had actually contacted the victim or that the purpose of contacting the victim's mother was to "get to" the victim.

When rendering its decision in Minus' case, the Fourth District Court of Appeals concurred with the ruling in Wilson and held that evidence of Minus' phone call to the victim's mother, by itself, was not enough to prove that he had willfully and substantially violated his probation. Additionally, the court record "lacked sufficient evidence" to prove that Minus was even notified by the trial court or his probation officer that "indirect contact" included contacting the victim's mother. There was also no evidence that the victim lived with her mother or that the phone number in question was the victim's residence.

As a result, the appellate court agreed with Minus and overturned his conviction.

Fort Lauderdale pain clinics are in the news, yet again. According to Sgt. Frank Sousa of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, there is an on-going investigation of three high volume pain clinics owned by a businessman named William D. Benton. The Florida Department of Health is allegedly involved as well. At this point in time, it is unknown whether there are any criminal charges pending or if any arrests will be made.

According to the online edition of the Sun-Sentinel, State officials suspended the medical license of Dr. Alfred E. Boyce, who worked at two of Benton's clinics. Dr. Boyce, age 80, had his license suspended as recently as 2004 for his role in a case where four people were left comatose by overdoses of botulinum toxin shots at a cosmetic medicine clinic.

In the present case, Dr. Boyce is accused of "over prescribing" pain pills to six patients. Over a six month period, Dr. Boyce is alleged to have prescribed 10,800 pills, that included Xanax and Oxycodone, to these six people. Dr. Boyce's lawyer claims that these patients suffered from chronic pain and required treatment with high doses of pain medications that were prescribed within legal limits.

As with Mr. Benton, it is unknown, at this time, whether or not any criminal charges will be filed. If so, there is no doubt that those arrested will need to hire a criminal defense lawyer who is very experienced in dealing with narcotic offenses.

Regardless, as has been discussed many times on this blog, cases like these epitomize the nature of the problem with the pain pill epidemic in Broward County. On the one hand, we have these doctors who are licensed, educated, and writing prescriptions based on MRI scans and medical records that establish the patient had a car accident, a slip and fall, or some other injury that would, at least superficially, justify treatment with pain medications.

On the other hand, you have these young, able bodied junkies, driving to these clinics from all over the country to purchase monthly supplies of pills that could be used to medicate a heard of elephants! Do you know why they come here from all over the country? Because in places like Tennessee and South Carolina, you can't get pain medications like Xanax and Oxycontin as easily as you can here.

The truth of the matter is that if this problem is going to be fixed, the State of Florida is going to have to step it up and make some real practical changes. First, new legislation must be passed to prevent doctor shopping and fraudulent prescription writing. If we created a state run database that used electronic prescriptions, written by doctors, and marked as filled by pharmacists, we would eliminate a big part of the problem right away.

Not only would this benefit our communities by diminishing crime, but it would save us money because we would have less people in the jails and less criminal prosecutions in the courthouse. People don't realize it, but criminal prosecutions get expensive. If we can minimize the crime, we can minimize the financial cost to the State.

Second, we need to hold the prescribing doctors responsible. Medical standards regarding true, legitimate palliative care should be established and then enforced. Doctors should be forced to stand behind their decisions or face consequences. If there were consequences to blatant disregards for medical standards, then doctors would be less inclined to prescribe medications to people who don't seem to need them. And for the record, I am not talking about malpractice remedies. We need standards that have civil and criminal penalties imposed by the Government. As someone who generally disfavors government regulation or government involvement in our lives, I think things have gotten so bad, that we have little choice but to start cracking down harshly.

Third, we need to hold the pharmacists accountable. How can one say, with a straight face that is, that the pharmacists don't know whats really going on. How many young, able bodied customers does a pharmacist have to see before he realizes he is dispensing to junkies? When a patient comes before a pharmacist, every month, with prescriptions for pain pills that are ever increasing in dose and quantity, at what point does the pharmacist become complicit? Again, even as someone who disfavors government intrusion, I think things have gotten so bad that we need to establish reasonable standards and then strictly enforce them.

Ultimately, the status quo is simply not working. We need to adjust to the circumstances we now find ourselves in and make changes that will solve problems. Otherwise, we will end up in a backwards spiral that is going to cost us more and more with every day that passes.