How To Stop Prosecutors From Using Leverage To Enhance Battery Penalties In Florida

What happens if someone is arrested for a felony battery on a law enforcement officer after being accused of a simple misdemeanor battery? Despite the fact that one charge is a felony punishable under Florida law for up to five years, sometimes it's just the simple battery that could ruin one's life. Incident to an instant investigation of a very recent simple battery an officer claims that he was struck by the Defendant. 

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So how could anything be worse than the underlying felony of battery on a law enforcement officer in cases in Clearwater, Florida? Well, if the defendant was accused by the original victim of inappropriately touching her crotch area as she walked along a sidewalk - which is bad enough. But the victim claims the defendant after leaving her alone for a minute or two then continued following her until touching her a second time in the crotch area thru her clothes. In this case if the facts are believed by prosecutors to be provable at trial they could file two criminal counts for each of the inappropriate touchings. In fact the crimes prosecutors would look at based on the totality of the victim's allegations include aggravated stalking, false imprisonment, sexual assault as well as lewd and lascivious conduct. Any of which would be much more difficult to successfully defend than the allegation of any simple battery on which the defendant was arrested. In fact the allegations alone could ruin the defendant's life no matter how the case would be resolved.

When there is any allegation of a crime of a sexual nature, prosecutors may elect to increase their leverage in the case by filing additional felony counts. There's little to stop them from merely limiting themselves to the charges officer's initially filed when making the arrest. In fact there's ample opportunity, motive and incentives for prosecutors to leverage the initial simple battery charge by filing additional charges. Here the charges they would likely consider include but are not limited to stalking, false imprisonment, sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct.

Although facts may be found and summoned to dispute the victim's testimony, the later battery on a law enforcement charge from the officer's case makes disproving the earlier simple battery much more difficult. This is true because successful prosecutors will file the case on one charging document, known in Florida as an information, so that at trial the entire story from both events could be tied together as one narrative for the jury.

If alcohol consumption was a contributing factor, it's important to note that alcohol is not an effective defense to a criminal Battery charge. And even if the defendant would have been a candidate to have the charges dismissed based on pretrial intervention, the sexual nature of the original simple battery arrest would force the State Attorney's Office to decline the PTI application. In fact even achieving a withholding of adjudication would be unlikely. 

Clearly, the best course of action would be to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation of the sexual assault as well as the battery on a law enforcement officer to determine if the witnesses are reliable, persuasive and honest. The investigation would include finding other witnesses or video evidence that undermines the simple battery charge as well as any of the felony charges the state of Florida could use as leverage to force a change of plea to guilty. 

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