March 26, 2013in Federal Law, Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Court says drug dog’s sniff at front door is unconstitutional search

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that police cannot bring drug-sniffing police dogs onto a suspect’s property to look for evidence without first getting a warrant for a search, a decision which may limit how investigators use dogs’ sensitive noses to search out drugs, explosives and other items hidden from human sight, sound and smell.
The high court split 5-4 on the decision to uphold the Florida Supreme Court’s ruling throwing out evidence seized in the search of Joelis Jardines’ Miami-area house. That search was based on an alert by Franky the drug dog from outside the closed front door.  The defendant was susequently charged with trafficking in marijuana.
Justice Antonin Scalia said a person has the Fourth Amendment right to be free from the government’s gaze inside their home and in the area surrounding it, which is called the curtilage.
“The police cannot, without a warrant based on probable cause, hang around on the lawn or in the side garden, trawling for evidence and perhaps peering into the windows of the home,” Justice Antonin Scalia said for the majority. “And the officers here had all four of their feet and all four of their companion’s, planted firmly on that curtilage — the front porch is the classic example of an area intimately associated with the life of the home.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/court-says-drug-dogs-sniff-at-front-door-is-unconstitutional-search/2013/03/26/cd02ce84-9621-11e2-8764-d42c128a01ef_story.html

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February 19, 2013in Family Law, Federal Law, Florida Lawyer

Supreme Court says Army dad must be heard in custody battle for daughter

An Army dad whose wife left him and took their daughter to Scotland gained  new hope when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the American courts can assert  themselves in international custody battles.
In a 9-0 vote that overturned an appeals court decision denying Sgt. Jeffrey  Chafin’s bid to get daughter Eris back, the high court rejected the idea that  Chafin’s appeal was “moot” because the six-year-old girl had been in Scotland  for more than a year. The justices sent the case back to the Florida-based 11th  Circuit court, telling the judges there to rule on the merits.
“Such return does not render this case moot; there is a live dispute between the parties over where their child will be raised, and there is a possibility of effectual relief for the prevailing parent,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in the written ruling. “The courts below therefore continue to have jurisdiction to adjudicate the merits of the parties’ respective claims.”
Read more:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/19/supreme-court-gives-soldier-fighting-chance-in-child-custody-battle/#ixzz2LNu5GHoL

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January 23, 2013in Federal Law, Florida Criminal Law, Florida Domestic Violence, Florida Lawyer

Closing Arguments in the Rilya Wilson Murder Case

Friends puzzled by the disappearance of the little girl. State child welfare administrators stunned at the vanishing of the 4-year-old foster child. A slew of police investigators dispatched to work the case.
A pathetic shell of a woman, cowed by an older lover into keeping her silence. Three prison inmates — one an eccentric con with a long rap sheet — who said they learned the truth about the crime while behind bars.
For eight weeks, these were the witnesses who testified against Geralyn Graham, who is accused of murdering foster child Rilya Wilson more than a decade ago. And on Tuesday, their photos adorned an eight-foot-long timeline poster board, suspended from the ceiling by chains of paper clips as a Miami-Dade prosecutor weaved each of their stories into a chilling. if circumstantial. narrative.
Graham, driven by festering hatred for little rambunctious Rilya, smothered the girl with a pillowcase, disposed of her body and for years concocted a web of “fanciful” tales to hide the crime, the state said.
“Lies, deceit and coverup,” Miami-Dade prosecutor Joshua Weintraub told jurors during closing arguments.
The arguments come more than a decade after Rilya disappeared, a case that rocked the Florida Department of Children & Families, which for 18 months did not realize the girl was missing. Authorities never found Rilya’s body.

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October 3, 2012in Federal Law, Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Two South Florida doctors sent to prison for 10 years in major Medicare scam

Two South Florida doctors convicted of conspiring to defraud Medicare through the nation’s largest mental-health racket were each sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday.
A federal jury in June convicted psychiatrists Mark Willner, 56, of Weston and Alberto Ayala, 68, of Coral Gables, the medical directors for American Therapeutic Corp., for their roles in a $205 million scheme to fleece the taxpayer-funded program for the elderly and disabled.
The 12-person jury found them not guilty on other healthcare fraud offenses.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz gave the two doctors the maximum prison sentence for their cruicial roles in the criminal conspiracy, and then ordered Willner to pay $57 million and Ayala $87 million to Medicare.
Justice Department prosecutors said the doctors prescribed $120 million worth of fraudulent psychotherapy sessions at ATC’s chain of clinics in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Willner and Ayala were paid $641,000 and $536,000, respectively, for their services, according to trial evidence.
Since Miami-based ATC’s chain was shuttered two years ago, 35 defendants have been charged in the case with the majority pleading guilty. The ringleader, business owner Lawrence Duran, received a 50-year prison sentence — the stiffest punishment ever for a Medicare fraud offender.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/02/3030400/two-south-florida-doctors-sent.html#storylink=cpy
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September 11, 2012in Federal Law, Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Check casher pleads guilty to laundering stolen Medicare millions that wound up in Cuba’s banks

A Cuban immigrant who laundered millions of dirty Medicare dollars through his Florida check-cashing store into Cuba’s state-controlled banking system has agreed to help federal investigators catch other suspects in the unprecedented case being prosecuted in Miami.
Oscar L. Sánchez, who recently pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to launder profits from Medicare fraud, agreed to “cooperate fully” with the U.S. attorney’s office in hopes of reducing a potential prison sentence of at least nine years, according to his plea agreement.
The agreement offers no details about his criminal activity because of its highly sensitive nature: Sánchez’s case marks the first prosecution of a defendant accused of laundering taxpayer-funded Medicare proceeds into Cuba’s national bank.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/10/2995736/check-casher-pleads-guilty-to.html#storylink=cpy
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August 31, 2012in Federal Law, Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

NFL veteran pleads guilty to tax-related fraud charges in Miami

William Joseph, a University of Miami defensive tackle who played in the NFL for much of the past decade, pleaded guilty to tax-related fraud charges in federal court Friday.
Joseph and others — including former Oakland Raider teammate, running back Michael Bennett — are accused of cashing dozens of fraudulently obtained tax-refund checks and seeking a loan with fake collateral. Their take totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to court records.
Joseph, 32, of Miramar, pleaded guilty to theft of government money and aggravated identity theft, the latter of which carries a mandatory two-year prison sentence. His sentencing was set for Nov. 9 before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/31/2976855/nfl-veteran-who-played-at-um-to.html#storylink=cpy
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Mark P. Melmer, Esq. served as a prosecutor here in Miami-Dade County, handling thousands of cases at both the misdemeanor and felony level. For the last 10 years Mark has devoted his practice to family law and domestic violence issues. This experience and insight makes him a formidable advocate.

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