TWEET!

If you're not following us on Twitter, you're missing all the action. Why just last Sunday as we lay by the pool at some fancy resort, a blistering exchange between all your favourite bloggers (DOM, So Fla and even the Cocaine Princess) took place.

Twitter: It's really more fun then watching Ohio State and Duke roll through the NCAAs.

WHO KNEW?

Below is a partial re-post of the JAA Broward Blog's post on the Broweird SAO's punitive policy of punishing defendants who have lawyers who are audacious enough to act like lawyers and challenge the State's evidence.

So while you read the goings on North Of the Border, fill us in about our dear Dade SAO- Do they withdraw all plea offers when the defense files a motion or seeks to take a depo?

Is there any rational defense to a prosecutor punishing a defendant for hiring an attorney who does their job?

(And before you go nuts, of course limited exceptions are totally understandable. A defendant who insists on having his lawyer depose the child victim of a sexual battery should expect that a reasonable plea offer will be withdrawn if the child is forced to speak about the incident. But there is a world of difference between the victim of a sexual assault and a narcotics detective, right?)

Lawyers fighting drug trafficking cases handled by the Broward SAO's Drug Trafficking Unit (DTU) have been operating under false impressions. It turns out you can file Motions regarding Suppression, Entrapment, Substantial Assistance, and other issues without fear of reprisal by having all below minimum mandatory offers revoked.

By way of background, DTU handles drug cases (mostly involving pills), carrying fifteen and twenty-five year min/mans. They tell you that if you dispute the State's evidence via Motions that don't get granted, you are plain and simply going to trial. Addicts who are in simple possession of maybe twenty-five pain pills are then looking at fifteen years, or twenty-five years for a few additional pills. The jury by law does not get to hear what the potential penalties are, and it is not necessary for the State to prove the addict sold or intended to sell the drugs.

The net effect of the way DTU does business results in predictable outcomes. Defendants are scared out of their minds, since the SAO runs the show even more than usual. Not being satisfied with the legislature taking away most of the judge's discretion, they remove any further possibility of a neutral arbiter's review by banning Motions for judges to consider. Defendants who can't prove their innocence or overcome illegal police activity on the facts alone are often forced to accept convictions along with DTU's standard three year prison sentence on fifteen year min/man cases, or seven years on twenty-five year min/mans. They are branded drug traffickers for the rest of their lives, or, if they're lucky, given convicted attempted drug trafficker status with shorter prison or jail time followed by gobs of probation. They are forced to give up all their rights because of what can only be deemed an Un-American policy that is in direct contradiction of the intent of the framers of the Florida and United States' Constitutions, out of fear of spending fifteen or twenty-five precious years in the slammer.

Of course, as stated above, it turns out there isn't a policy at all. All the lawyers who have been told this by a DTU prosecutor must have misunderstood, including the judges who hear it when it's stated on the record. Yes, even those lawyers DTU Chief John Gallagher screamed at for going over his head to Chuck Morton orSatz because they didn't like the rules are wrong too.

Can't believe your eyes? Here's part of an email sent to SAO Media Man Ron Ishoy earlier today:

"(O)n Mr. Satz's policy regarding the Drug Trafficking Unit.

As everyone knows, Mr. Gallagher and his team withdraw all offers if an attorney files a Motion To Suppress, Motions regarding Entrapment defenses, or any other type of Motions questioning the State's case. If Motions are filed, a Defendant has to go to trial facing the mandatory minimum penalty in nearly every case. If no Motions are filed DTU will entertain breakdown offers typically involving reduced prison sanctions.

The question ... is simple: what is Mr. Satz's rationale for the policy?"

The answer came at 4:54 pm:

"The State Attorney's Office has no such blanket policy. Each case is based on its own evidence and unique circumstances."

Again, who knew? Every attorney, judge and Defendant must have misunderstood. You can file Motions in DTU cases without fear of reprisal after all.

Here's what Kevin Kulik had to say after he learned of Ishoy's email, echoing the experience of nearly every single attorney in Broward County for at least a decade:

"If it's true they must have decided that today in a meeting with Mr. Satz personally. I've had ASA's explain that policy to me for years. Every DTU prosecutor has explained that policy to me because the policy was you can't file a Motion."

Rumpole says: It sucks getting caught in a lie Mr. Satz, doesn't it?