Florida Lawyer

January 15, 2013in Family Law, Florida Criminal Law, Florida Domestic Violence, Florida Lawyer

DCF in the News Again

The goings-on in front of six young kids at 647 NW Third Ct. in Hallandale Beach — the dope smoking and drinking, the yelling, cursing and threats — was so disturbing to an observer that she called the state’s child abuse hotline.
“It is just terrible,’’ the woman told the hotline operator just after the New Year. “Horrible.’’
Four days later, the 21-year-old mother of some of those children, Brittney Sierra, would be arrested for child neglect, which could be the least of her problems.
Investigators dug up the remains of an infant in a nearby yard on Friday. They might be Sierra’s son, Dontrell Melvin. If they are, Sierra, 21, could be charged with murder along with the boy’s father, Calvin Melvin, 27.
The scene at the house Sierra and her children shared with her mother, Renee Menendez and her children, shouldn’t have been a surprise to child-welfare workers, considering how many times they’d been there.
Department records indicate 30 contacts with Menendez, a KFC manager in her 40s who was raising four children ranging in age from 8 to 11 — Sierra’s half siblings.
Like her daughter Sierra, Menendez has now lost all of her children. Department of Children and Family workers moved them to a state home over the weekend.

December 18, 2012in Family Law, Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Miami Lakes teen arrested for school Twitter threats

In the wake of last week’s deadly school shooting in Connecticut, Miami-Dade police have arrested a 16-year-old student at Miami Lakes Educational Center who threatened on Twitter to “shoot up this school this Friday.”
Austin Lee Bowlin was charged with making a threat to injure others after he sent a series of tweets, via cellphone, after his principal made a safety announcement on the school’s loudspeaker Monday morning.
On Friday, a 20-year-old named Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn, before killing himself. The carnage has caused national outrage and prompted school districts around the country to review safety plans.

December 6, 2012in Family Law, Florida Criminal Law, Florida Domestic Violence, Florida Lawyer

DCF worker in Rilya’s case testifies in court

The first indication of trouble came in the form of Rilya Wilson’s case file: It seemed unusually thin.
State child welfare worker Dora Betancourt, who took over the 5-year-old foster child case in April 2002, examined the paperwork and noticed that no one had checked on Rilya in more than a year.
After a series of phone messages to Rilya’s foster mother, Betancourt came face-to-face with Geralyn Graham in the driveway of her Kendall home.
“Where’s Rilya?” Betancourt asked.
“Oh, I thought you were bringing her back,” Graham said, according to Betancourt, who testified Wednesday during Graham’s murder trial in Rilya’s disappearance.
Betancourt told jurors Wednesday that Graham’s story unfolded in a bizarre and confusing fashion. She said an unnamed Department of Children and Families worker whisked the 5-year-old away for some sort of mental health evaluation more than a year before
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/05/3127856/employee-who-discovered-rilya.html

November 26, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer, Uncategorized

Lawyers offer opening statements in Rilya Wilson murder case

“A Miami woman ‘snuffed the life’ out of foster child Rilya Wilson, then concocted a web of lies to cover up the murder, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.”

"Stand Your Ground" In the News Again

Ernesto Che Vino, the Miami-Dade homeowner cleared of assaulting two utility company workers under the state’s controversial self-defense law, is back behind bars — this time, police say, for raping his neighbor.
His case drew headlines in November 2010 when a judge, citing the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground law, ruled Vino was justified in pointing his rifle at two Florida & Power Light workers trying to shut off his electricity.
The utility company, which has the legal right to enter a property to shut off delinquent accounts, protested the decision. After the judge’s ruling, the company added undisclosed extra “security measures” when turning off powerr to homes.
Vino, 44, was arrested last week and charged with sexual battery. His 22-year-old neighbor told Miami-Dade detectives that Vino “covered her mouth with his hand to keep her from screaming,” then threatened to punch her before raping her, according to an arrest report.

October 31, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Suspect wanted in shooting of Miami rapper Bizzle

Miami police have issued an arrest warrant for the murder of Miami rapper Robert Labranche, better known among his fans as Bizzle.

Miami-Dade judge rules fingerprint evidence should be restricted

In a rare and controversial legal move, a Miami-Dade judge has curtailed fingerprint evidence in a criminal case — drawing alarm from prosecutors who vow to appeal.

Suspect in Wisconsin Salon Attack had History of Abuse

A man suspected of opening fire at a Wisconsin salon where his wife worked, killing three women and wounding four others, had a history of domestic abuse and had been arrested for slashing his wife’s tires a few weeks earlier, police said.
It wasn’t clear if Radcliffe Franklin Haughton’s wife was among the victims in Sunday’s shooting at the spa in Brookfield, a middle-to-upper class suburb west of Milwaukee. Haughton, 45, shot himself to death at the salon, police said.
Haughton’s wife sought court protection four days after he slashed her tires on Oct. 4, Brookfield police said. Police arrested him and a judge granted a four-year restraining order on Thursday. As part of the order, Haughton, of Brown Deer, was prohibited from owning a firearm.
Brookfield Police Chief Dan Tushaus declined to comment on whether Haughton had surrendered any weapons prior to Sunday’s salon rampage. Tushaus also said he wasn’t aware of a motive, but that investigators weren’t looking for anyone else in the shooting.

October 17, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Miami Rapper Bizzle Shot in front of Liberty City Car Wash

Robert Labranche was arrested 27 times, spent much of his early life in and out of jail and was so poor that he said he used to eat garbage while growing up in Liberty City.
But by the time he was in his mid-20s, Labranche had reinvented himself as a South Florida rapper named “Bizzle,” He was an entrepreneur known for paying it forward by helping to get kids in his community off the street.
He owned a car wash, an entertainment company, a window-tinting business and at one time ran a seafood restaurant. He was a father of two small children, whose last message about them would prove prophetic.
Labranche, 37, was shot multiple times Monday night outside his Liberty City car wash with his children in his SUV, parked just steps away. They were not injured and did not see their father killed, police said.
Labranche, whose music is popular in Miami-area strip clubs, created his own record label, Chowtime Entertainment in 2000. Two of his songs, Lip-biting Animal, and Naked Hustle, were considered strip-club anthems. He used social media to promote the songs, which were widely played in Florida nightclubs. He also organized massive parties aboard yachts and at clubs, featuring DJs and exotic dancers.

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Melmer Law, LLC

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.