Indigent Probate Florida: Fill & Download for Free

First Miami-Dade Inmate to Die of Coronavirus was in Jail for Failure to Register as Sex Offender - Florida Action Committee“Charles R Hobbs Jr. is the first Miami-Dade jail inmate to die from the virus. He was in jail awaiting trial after being arrested for failure to register as a sex offender. The underlying conviction for which he was registered was from 1998. He committed no other sexual offenses in the more than 20 years since.According to his failure to register case docket, he was indigent and could not afford the $20,000 Bond. He had been sitting in Jail since January.According to his underlying conviction for the crime that took place in 1997 (before the registry even existed), he was given a withhold adjudication and 5 years probation.A failure to register for an offense that took place more than 20 years ago and for which he didn’t even receive jail time should not have resulted in the death penalty for Mr. Hobbs. And they say registration is not punishment!”I just quoted the entire article from the above web-site because this shows the total lunacy of what they are doing to those who end up catching COVID-19. Granted, this is Miami-Dade county where the mantra is “See Florida on vacation, leave Florida on Probation”.

Do most criminals think they can commit crimes without getting caught?First, let me address the comment made by David Blades with regard to Public Defenders.I am a contract Investigator for the Public Defender’s system here in Florida. I can work for any Attorney appointed to defend the indigent, in any jurisdiction in the State, and I frequently do so.The Attorneys I work for are in private practice. They do NOT work for the Public Defender’s office per se but they DO take Criminal Defense cases (on a contract basis) that would otherwise be assigned to the Public Defender’s Office.As such, I take great offense to your comment about “getting a bunch of time because they used a Public Defender.” This is a reckless, uninformed statement and I resent it.My clients get the very same defense as the wealthiest clients in the State of Florida. They also get the best Investigators in the State, if my fellow contract Investigators are any indication.The reason some clients get an Attorney from the Public Defender’s Office vs one of the Attorneys I work for is simple: Conflicts. If an accused has more than one case with the Public Defender, or has a case in which they may be a witness for another Public Defender client, the Public Defender cannot represent that client without conflict.Furthermore, most of the private practice Attorneys I work with have come from employment in the Public Defender’s Office. These are the very same Attorneys who, last week, were working exclusively in the Public Defenders Office. They are of no greater or lesser quality than any other Criminal Defense Attorney.Now, back to the question.Do most criminals think they can commit crimes without getting caught?The answer is: YES. Most assuredly, absolutely, without a doubt, most criminals think they are smarter than everyone else, and that no one would EVER think to suspect them of a crime.Back to why criminals get a lot of jail time.As you can imagine, funds to defend criminals are severely limited. Every case gets a budget and when that budget is up, the Attorney isn’t getting paid anymore. Neither are Investigators.I simply do not have a lot of time to play games with the accused when they are denying they did the crime, especially when I have a half dozen eyewitnesses who know them by name swearing they did it; their mama says they did it, plus I have the security camera and a couple of cell phone videos showing them doing the crime.These are the very same individuals who INSIST on taking their case to court, despite the Prosecution offering a minimal sentence and probation.Attorneys cannot FORCE clients to take their advice and no one can deny them their right to testify. We KNOW what’s going to happen when they do testify - and we TELL them what’s going to happen, but many refuse to take a plea.In 99.9999% of cases, the reason someone got a long jail sentence is because of sentencing laws and a refusal to take a plea when they were clearly guilty.