Tampa criminal court case results
- the decision to prosecute or not
- facts: Our client was accused of sexual battery by his son's girlfriend. The girlfriend was working at the client's family business when she began dating the client's son. The girlfriend had somewhat of a troubled past. Our client's family treated her as one of their own, and they had become very close to her over the time that she was dating the son. Despite obvious psychological and emotional issues, the family supported her in every way possible. On the day of the alleged incident, the whole family, as well as the girlfriend, had attended the funeral of relative. After the funeral they all retuned to the house. Much later in the night, our client left the house to go to the store. The girlfriend asked if he could giver her a ride back to her house. She alleged that the client sexually assaulted her in the car.
- defense: Florida has very specific laws regarding the types of information that can be introduced in a sexual battery trial concerning the victim's past. However, this information can be crucial to the State Attorney's decision as to whether or not to file criminal charge in the first place. In this case, we discovered that the girlfriend had made similar allegations in the past against another man. In addition to that, her account of the events was inconsistent with evidence that the officer's had collected on the scene. Her history of emotional and psychological issues added further questions about her credibility.
- results: After presenting all of this evidence to the State, and cooperating with law enforcement, the charges were no filed.
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