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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 9, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

"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 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.

October 12, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Jurors in Brewer burning case to go before judge

Three years to the day after a group of Deerfield Beach Middle School classmates doused Michael Brewer with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire, nearly killing Brewer, a Broward judge will interview six jurors about their June deliberations before reaching a guilty verdict against the teen accused of inciting the attack.
Jurors’ responses could lead to a new trial for Matthew Bent, 18, who was found guilty of aggravated battery for his role in the attack, and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Broward Circuit Judge Matthew Destry recalled the jurors after defense attorneys moved for a new trial based on allegations by the jury forewoman, who alleged that fellow jurors in the trial began discussing the facts and reaching conclusions before closing arguments.
“The record is incomplete with regard to whether jurors began their deliberations early,’’ Destry said at a September hearing.
Destry also has yet to rule on Bent’s motion for acquittal, which is based on defense attorneys’ claims that there was insufficient evidence to prove that any of the teens involved in the attack intended to set Brewer on fire.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/11/3045858/jurors-in-brewer-burning-case.html

October 10, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Pedro Bravo indicted for murder and kidnapping in disappearance of Christian Aguilar

On Tuesday, as more charges were brought against his son’s accused killer, Carlos Aguilar kept searching.
It had been 19 days since Christian Aguilar disappeared somewhere in Gainesville. More than two weeks had passed since police arrested the accused killer, a former high school friend of Christian Aguilar’s from Doral Academy Preparatory School.
Then came Tuesday, when a grand jury reaffirmed the murder charge against Pedro Bravo and added another — kidnapping.
But Christian Aguilar’s body was still missing.
Hours after hearing the grand jury’s decision announced, Carlos Aguilar returned to another patch of woods to search, again. The added charge did not deliver what he needed most.
“I haven’t found my son. What I’m looking for is to find my son, so I can get everything ready with my family,” Carlos Aguilar said. “That’s what I really need.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/09/3042146/grand-jury-indicts-pedro-bravo.html

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

August 22, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Man With Face Tattoos Claims Misidentification

Adriana Johnson clearly remembers the January afternoon six years ago when she watched her father scuffle with a young man on a Liberty City street. She remembers the teen skirt down a side street, return with an AK-47 rifle and unleash a flurry of bullets. The memories, on Tuesday, were crisp:
Her mother bleeding from the leg, screaming that she had been shot.
The homicide detectives investigating the murders of her parents presenting her with a photo lineup. The instant recognition. The killer sported two distinctive tattoos inked on each cheek.
“Crosses. On each side of his face,” Adriana, now 16, told jurors Tuesday, on the opening day of the murder trial for Benito “Bo” Santiago.
The suspect’s conspicuous crucifix tattoos lay at the heart of the prosecution’s case against Santiago, 23, charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
On Tuesday, prosecutors said that Adriana and another witness identified Santiago, whom they knew from around the neighborhood, as the man who killed Grace Armstrong, 27, and Adrian Johnson, 28.
The second witness, prosecutor Kathleen Cortes told jurors, knew Santiago well — she had allowed him to sleep at her home from time to time.
But defense attorney Alan Greenstein said prosecutors have no physical evidence linking Santiago to the crime and eyewitness testimony is unreliable. The second witness, Patricia Wilcher, never housed Santiago in the months preceding the shooting because the teen was living in New York at the time, Greenstein said.
“She’s got the wrong man,” Greenstein told jurors.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/21/2962054/trial-starts-for-man-in-liberty.html#storylink=cpy

March 12, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Miami cop going 120 mph gets plea offer

Officer Fausto Lopez is charged with reckless driving, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum of 90 days in jail. If he pleads guilty or no contest to the charge, prosecutors will not seek jail time, Assistant State Attorney David Schulson said at a court hearing Monday.
The Miami cop clocked going 120 mph while off duty last fall could stay out of jail but end up with a criminal record under a plea offer by prosecutors.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-miami-cop-hearing-20120312,0,4800023.story

March 6, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer, Uncategorized

Driver in Hit & Run on Rikenbacker Causeway Will Remain In Jail

The driver in a deadly crash on the Rikenbacker Causeway back on February 15, 2012, Michele Traverso, will remain in jail on a probation violation affidavit. The accident occured while Traverso was on probation for a drug charge.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/06/2678546/driver-in-deadly-rickenbacker.html

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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.