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On the morning of December 2, three men were arrested by St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office investigators for allegedly running a marijuana grow house, with officials also seizing 92 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $275,000. Orley Recio and his brother-in-law, Wildo Dumont, both 43 and living in Fort Pierce, were arrested with...Read More

Fort Pierce Drug Crime Lawyer: Case Study Importance of A Good Attorney Anyone who faces drug charges needs to contact an experienced Fort Pierce drug crime lawyer right away. If you do not contact an experienced lawyer, you could find yourself in much more legal trouble. You could face higher fines and more time behind...Read More

Sammie Lee Hampton, 23, of Port St Lucie, was booked into the county jail Sept. 3, charged with child abuse without great bodily harm, after a teacher told authorities he slapped a child. In an affidavit, police said Hampton’s actions left a 4-year-old girl with a handprint on her face that was still apparent two...Read More

On Sunday, August 16, a 23-year-old man on probation for attempted murder was arrested in Fort Pierce police on suspicion of DUI after being pulled over for speeding. John Garrett Call Jr. of Fort Pierce was stopped at approximately 2:48 a.m. after being clocked doing roughly 80 miles per hour on South Ocean Boulevard by...Read More

People continue to use creative ways to sell drugs in America. The police recently arrested four individuals who worked in a grocery store in Fort Pierce. The authorities are charging the four culprits with selling drugs out of the “Around the Clark” store in which they worked. Police headquarters received a tip that led them...Read More

Some DUI cases may seem to be cut-and-dry, but a DUI lawyer can review case specifics in many instances and determine if there are mitigating circumstances which can help to reduce penalties or even exonerate a defendant. Consider a recent Fort Pierce case in which two women were stopped in two separate traffic checkpoints. The...Read More

A search warrant was executed on 8/13/14 on 1604-A Avenue K in Fort Pierce, Florida. According to the arrest affidavit, Jamie Baucomb (not his real name) was charged with possession of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia. These charges were based upon nine crack cocaine rocks which were...Read More

Okeechobee Stampede Bar Brouhaha Resolved – The Case For a Better Defense Something happened at the Okeechobee Stampede bar around 1:30 – 2:00 A.M. in the early morning hours of 2/14/15. This was not a lovers’ quarrel. Whatever it was, no one involved thought it important enough to complain about that night to the Okeechobee...Read More

After a seven-month investigation into a massive drug ring was conducted by law enforcement, an arrest of 12 individuals was made. 12 people are currently in jail and 13 arrests are pending. The heroin bust is anticipated to be the “tip of the iceberg” with a growing problem that seems to increase in its severity....Read More

A man was beaten by his wife and called the police. When the police arrived on the scene, they found the man outside smoking a cigarette. He had bloody eyes and was unsteady on his feet. The woman said that her husband had just gotten out of rehab for an alcohol addiction. She also said...Read More

The number of cases involving a drug called flakka is on the rise in Fort Pierce. On Thursday, June 18, 2015, police found three men at Chevron gas station in Fort Pierce. Investigators found that the men had flakka, guns and a ski mask. On Tuesday, June 16, 2015, investigators issued a warrant after a...Read More

Hector Long (not his real name) was arrested on 3/6/15 by Fort Pierce Police. What makes this arrest unusual is that Long is the owner of a “motel”. He was arrested for trespass when he entered the room of a tenant. Initially, Long thought that he could “do-it-yourself”. He was thinking that the criminal courts...Read More

Two people in St. Lucie County were arrested after a home was searched and sheriff’s investigators found a loaded handgun and drugs inside of it. Eighteen-year old Angel Lupe Ellis was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors and nine felonies. Officers found several types of prescription pills, including oxycodone. They also found MDMA, marijuana and...Read More

On Thursday, May 7, police in Port St. Lucie arrested 5 people, four adults and a minor, on multiple drug-related charges. Authorities booked all suspects into the county jail or juvenile detention center, depending on age. At the time, it is unknown if any of them have spoken with a St Lucie FL drug defense...Read More

Charges of child neglect or abandonment are serious ones that can tear families apart and leave children feeling traumatized not only due to the event that brought about the charge, but the legal complications that follow. Especially if charges of drug possession or other related offenses are attached to the family matter, a child is...Read More

In the case below, St Luice Criminal Appeals Lawyer Jeffrey Garland was able to reverse and remand a new trial for his client Edwin Jose Garrido. Attorney Garland was able to get a new trial for his client due to ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to investigate defenses as to the amended dates and failing to...Read More

No one in Port St. Lucie needs a St. Lucie battery defense lawyer more than Jaymie Lee Perry, who is now being held in lieu of $46,000 bail with two charges of resisting an officer with violence and battery on an officer, battery, aggravated battery, purse-snatching, and battery on a person 65 years old or...Read More

Officers in Port St. Lucie have stated that a stolen iPad led them to a marijuana grow house. The officers stated that they started the investigation in January after an iPad was stolen from Wal-Mart. They found out that the stolen iPad was activated by a man named Robinson Taverez. Timothy Bordt, who is a...Read More

Rodney Rockaway (not his real name) was arrested for DUI and possession of cannabis under 20 grams on 10/20/13 by the special investigations unit (SIU) of the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office and by Officer Michael Acevedo of the Fort Pierce Police Department. Initially, Rockaway “went with” the public defender’s office. Later on, he retained...Read More

Two sisters are facing assault and burglary charges after a road rage incident. The incident was reported by 35 year-old Lashonda Barnes. She noticed a vehicle was driving erratically and had honked the horn. She had slowed down to stop it. That was when the two sisters pulled up next to her, got out of...Read More

A Port St. Lucie mother was arrested for felony child abuse after intentionally slamming on her brakes in an attempt to get two of her children to stop fighting. The Unfolding Case Lorena Sullivan Simpson was driving with her 12-year-old daughter in the front seat. In the back seat were her nine-year-old son and seven-year-old...Read More

Two men from the Fort Pierce, Florida area were arrested on Saturday, February 7, 2015 for assault. The arrest occurred after the two had allegedly beaten up a third man and punched and kicked him until he fell over onto the ground. One of the individuals allegedly involved in the attack was 25 year old...Read More

On Feb. 3, 2015, Fort Pierce authorities reported that they took the driver of a vehicle into custody after she allegedly drove her vehicle into a daycare center. The 32-year-old woman received a ticket for driving with a license. They related that she was driving north on a local road when she hit a mailbox...Read More

Fort Pierce Battery Lawyer to Protect You Police arrested Amber Gates, a Fort Pierce woman, for child cruelty without causing great harm. What brought about the charge: allegations by Gates’s 15-year-old son that she punched him in the mouth while he was watching pornography on her cell phone. Gates contends that she intended to slap...Read More

Astor Johanson (not his real name) had just helped unload the catch from a commercial fishing trip. Johanson drove away from the docks in his SUV, happy to be back on dry land after a successful fishing excursion. An overly alert St. Lucie County Sheriff’s detective noted that Johanson was not wearing a seatbelt. Thus...Read More

Attorney Jeffrey Garland was retained to represent Emilio Garcia (not his real name), just after his arrest for domestic violence. The wife is the person who actually retained Mr. Garland. As is so often the case, police responded to the Garcia residence in Fort Pierce, Florida, on 6/20/14, shortly after midnight. Mrs. Garcia was upset...Read More

A 28 year-old man named Stravious Johnson was arrested in Fort Pierce for drug possession on Thursday, December 11, 2014. He was charged with possession of marijuana and amphetamine. Officers found him driving a vehicle connected with an armed robbery that had occurred earlier that night. Around 9 P.M on Thursday, officers in Okeechobee County...Read More

According to an arrest affidavit, an argument the Friday following Thanksgiving ended with a woman receiving burns to her face. The Fort Pierce woman was taken to Orlando for treatment of her second- and third-degree burns to 90 percent of her face. James Germany, her companion, was arrested on a charge of aggravated battery causing...Read More

The recent arrest of a 25-year-old Fort Pierce man on drug and other charges illustrates the ongoing “war on drugs” that this nation has been waging for decades. It also shows the importance of legal assistance for those charged with drug-related offenses. It is this type of service that is provided by a Fort Pierce...Read More

Kelli Yanuzzi, who is a 29-year old foster mother from Fort Pierce, has been arrested for child abuse. She broke her foster daughter’s femur. The little girl was rushed to the emergency room after the incident occurred. According to deputies, the foster mother threw the little girl down on the ground after she refused to...Read More

Help from a Fort Pierce Fraud Theft Lawyer The last remaining mortgage fraud charge against Carl Crankshaft (not his real name) was dropped by the State on 10/21/14. This brought to a successful conclusion the ill-begotten prosecution. The underlying facts in this case were not in any serious dispute. Ultimately, the State was forced to...Read More

Fort Pierce Man Arrested for Selling Drugs On the 700 block of N. 24th Street in Fort Pierce, a cigar tube filled with almost 60 crack cocaine rocks were found in a pile of leaves. The cigar tube was discovered during a law enforcement check of vacant homes in the area. Several men were standing...Read More

Recently Attorney Garland was published in the Southern Reporter regarding one of his appeals. To view the article Click Here.Read More

Two Okeechobee Men Arrested For Dug Possesion In the St. Lucie County Jail, two Okeechobee men have been arrested and held on bail following arrests in Fort Pierce for felony drug charges. On August 12th, St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office arrested Chase Weeks, 19, and Jerome Johnson, 19. Police arrested Johnson for carrying a concealed...Read More

Saint Lucie Drug Defense Attorney While Washington State and Colorado have legalized marijuana, the federal government and 48 other states are still in offense mode against the drug most people consider basically harmless. Acting on a Crime Stoppers tip about drug activity, Saint Lucie police reported to an apartment on S.E. Green Acres Circle. Officers...Read More

Revoked Bond Lands Citizen in Jail…Thrice Ready for Trial Secures His Release Ron Wilson (not his real name) ran into trouble upon trouble. Initially jailed on the say so of a neighbor with known mental instability, Ron secured his release on bond. He then ran into problems with his estranged wife, with whom he was...Read More

Two Fort Pierce Men Arrested For Drug Possession Two people were arrested at the intersection of Delaware Avenue and South 29th Street after they were pulled over by deputies. The officers stated that they smelt fresh, unburnt marijuana inside of the car. They searched the car and found money and marijuana. The officers seized the...Read More

DUI Defense: Help When You Deserve It On June 14, 2014, a Fort Pierce woman, smelling of alcohol, was arrested after she presented a DVD when asked for her driver’s license.The case took place on June 14 at about 12:45 a.m., when a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office deputy pulled over a 1997 Pontiac near...Read More

Dozens Arrested in $10 Million Drug Ring in Fort Pierce A Fort Pierce drug trafficking lawyer recently learned that officials had arrested dozens who were allegedly part of a drug ring in Fort Pierce. The investigation, which had been ongoing for over a year, was known as Operation Spot Remover because those in the drug...Read More

Eight St. Lucie Residents Arrested on Drug Charges With St. Lucie County right in the center of Florida, it’s no surprise that last week eight people were arrested and remain in jail on extensive drug trafficking charges. Investigators remain very secretive about the arrests, but they have disclosed that many state and federal agencies including...Read More

A twelve year-old student at Chester A. Moore Elementary School in Fort Peirce, FL was recently accused of punching a teacher in the face after the teacher attempted to remove the student from her classroom because of disruptive behavior. The teacher has stated that the student became so enraged at being removed from the room...Read More

St. Lucie Man Arrested for DUI With Kids in the Car Drinking and driving is never a good mix in the State of Florida, especially when it involves children. A corrections officer was recently arrested and charged with drunk driving and child endangerment. Douglas Shultz was pulled over by Port St. Lucie police because of...Read More

Aggravated Battery Charges Dropped in Okeechobee County Newt Ranger (not his real name) was arrested for an aggravated battery that allegedly occurred on 10/26/13, at about 1:30 A.M. 17-year-old Newt, together with a number of other juveniles and adults, were at Douglas Park in Okeechobee. The State accused Newt of hitting a 22-year-old man in...Read More

St. Lucie Man Arrested for Dealing Drugs Florida has some of the strictest laws of the 50 states for drug possession. Someone who is convicted of possession of an illegal substance such as marijuana can find himself or herself behind bars for a period of up to one year if the quantity is less than...Read More

St. Lucie Man Arrested For Lewd Behavior on I-95 Distracted driving occurs in many forms. A St. Lucie, Florida man was recently arrested by the Florida state police for masterbating while driving down I-95. The individual, 22 year-old Cory Evans, was reported by a truck driver on a 911 call after Evans reportedly was driving...Read More

High School Teacher Arrested for Inappropriate Relationship With Student A Port St. Lucie High School coach and guidance counselor was arrested on April 21 for an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old female student. The Sherriff’s Office reported learning of the incident from the student’s mother and interviewed the teacher at the school before the arrest.The...Read More

Fort Pierce Teacher Arrested of Lewd Behavior A Fort Pierce, Florida, high school teacher was arrested at his Vero Beach home on March 21 and charged with lewd or lascivious conduct with six teenage girls, 14 and 15 years old. According to Fort Pierce deputies, the arrest of the 66-year-old teacher followed a three-week investigation...Read More

Fort Pierce Man Arrested For Possesion of Illegal Drugs A man and woman were arrested on drug charges in Fort Pierce, Florida, after a routine traffic stop for driving with no headlights.According to police reports, the officer who stopped the Ford Fusion at 8 p.m. noticed a strong smell of marijuana from inside and ordered...Read More

Racing on Highway Charge Reduced Alan Jasper (not his real name) was charged with racing on the highway in violation of Section 316.191(2)(a), on November 19, 2013. Shortly after bonding out of jail, he hired Attorney Jeffrey H. Garland.   A Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) trooper alleged that he observed Jasper engage in a high...Read More

Two Arrested in St. Lucie for Operating Marijuana Grow House Two men wee arrested in Port St. Lucie on charges of operating a marijuana grow house in their garage. Police executed a search warrant and reported a marijuana grow operation of 21 plants with more than 25 pounds of weed and also cultivation equipment. The...Read More

Father Who Believed Son Was Possessed by Demon Arrested for Battery No longer does law enforcement assume fault when they arrive at the scene. For instance, when called to a home for domestic violence 20 or30 years ago, the man was arrested 95 percent of the time. Criminal battery was likely charged as a misdemeanor,...Read More

Pot Charges Dropped Magnum Jones (not his real name) was arrested for possession of marijuana under 20 grams on August 27, 2013. Police approached two men who were simply standing next to a van located in a public place. The police officer claimed that there was nothing on the ground when he first engaged both...Read More

Okeechobee Campus Counselor Arrested For Sexual Misconduct A guidance counselor at the Okeechobee Freshman Campus was arrested on February 7 on a number of sexual misconduct charges, including felony charges of using a computer to seduce, solicit and lure a female juvenile. According to Detective Rosemary Farless of the Okeechobee County’s Sheriff’s Office (OCSO), 47-year-old...Read More

  State Drops DUI Based on Lack of Proof of Actual Physical Control The Defendant, Ajax Monroe (not his real name), was arrested for this DUI on 12/12/12. The underlying charge had, allegedly, occurred on 8/14/11. Ajax was hospitalized as a result of the accident. He was arrested on a warrant. Ajax retained Jeffrey H....Read More

Allstate’s “DriveWise” Records Show Squatter to be Liar: Stalking Charge Dropped at Jury Selection A 77-year-old man was arrested for “stalking”. The “victim” made a sworn statement as follows: [Mr. Cook] has be[en] coming by my house 3 to 4 times a day dating to back to last year. If we go to the store,...Read More

45 People for Prostitution, Drugs and Weapons The Port St. Lucie, Florida police force conducted a major investigation over the holidays that led to a multitude of arrests. Police officers felt that Florida residents had suffered enough of living next to prostitutes, drug dealers, gun thieves and drug manufacturers. Therefore, their present this holiday season was wiping...Read More

Dealer Plate Defeats Charge of Attaching Unassigned Tag Alex Anderson (not his real name) was driving a fully restored 1978 Chevy down a public highway minding his own business. Unbeknownst to Alex was the practice of local law enforcement to stop white folks driving in a “black” part of Fort Pierce at about 11 in...Read More

Teacher Arrested for DUI New Year’s Eve is unfortunately a common time for incidents of drunk driving. In Stuart, Florida, this was no exception on that night as a Martin County High School teacher was picked up for driving under the influence a mere 30 minutes before the ball dropped in New York City on...Read More

Elementary School Teacher Accused of Sex With a Minor Quotaysha Jones, a fifth grade teacher at an elementary school located in Port St. Lucie, Florida, recently appeared before a judge, accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a teenager. Local authorities involved in the case have access to surveillance of visits between the teacher...Read More

Drunk Driver Rear Ends Off-Duty Officer A Port Lucie man was arrested after rear-ending a vehicle driven by an off-duty St. Lucie deputy, police say. Jonathan Barnes was jailed on charges of driving while intoxicated for the fourth time in ten years and for driving with a suspended license. Accident Details Barnes was weaving in...Read More

Man Arrested for Possession with Intent to Sell A man from Belle Glade, Florida was arrested on charges of felony drug possession with the intention to sell. He was later released from the Okeechobee County Jail on a $5,000 bond.The man is Keith Wendell Cooper, a 47 year old man. He was arrested on Thursday,...Read More

Example of an Unjust Battery Case There was a recent case in Fort Pierce where two teens ended up facing battery charges for going on a joy ride with a BB gun. They were reported to have been firing the BB gun at random passing pedestrians, resulting in minor injuries to a few of those...Read More

Drug Posession Criminal Lawyer in Okeechobee County Four people were recently arrested in Okeechobee County for possession of methamphetamine. Sheriff’s deputies were called to the scene after one of those arrested was seen with a syringe in her arm. Deputies promptly pulled over and arrested two people in a gold Jeep liberty. Upon searching the...Read More

Former Deputy Arrested in DUI In a recently reported story of an event that took place back in August, a deputy sheriff of Indian River County was arrested for driving under the influence. Don W. Robinson, while off duty, crashed his pick-up truck into some bushes off of U.S. Route 1. The incident happened on...Read More

On Nov. 5 a resident of Port St. Lucie was arrested in the evening when his home was raided by the police. He was suspected of manufacturing methamphetamine in his home. The police spokesman claimed that he was in possession of methamphetamine and also was in possession of a grinder, Sudafed and what the spokesman...Read More

The “war on drugs” continues in America. Arrests and prosecutions for drug-related charges seem to always be in the news. The St. Lucie County, Florida area is no exception. A recent undercover crack cocaine buy resulted in the arrest of seven people in Fort Pierce. St. Lucie County Sheriff’s drug investigators were responsible for the...Read More

Judge Tosses Out Disorderly Conduct and Resisting Arrests for Playing Christian Music at Home Monica Williams (not her real name) had the proverbial “neighbors from hell”. The neighbors had previously filed police reports making all sorts of claims. The neighbor claimed that she could hear Monica talking and coughing, which caused her “fear”. Although the ...Read More

Lonely Heart’s Club – Sister Accuses Her Own Mother and Brother of False Imprisonment and Battery – All Charges Dropped After Year of Intense Litigation – Detective Poses as Pseudo-Psychologist Adrian Antoon and his mother, Giselle (not their real names), were arrested in Indian River County in August, 2012, on charges of false imprisonment and...Read More

A manager of a nationwide sporting goods chain was charged with grand theft via embezzlement. The manager retained Fort Pierce Attorney Jeffrey Garland within days of his arrest. Based upon many factors, including a lack of price record and immediate repayment of 100% of the misappropriated funds, the manager was allowed to plead to a...Read More

Jack Martin (not his real name) was arrested in March, 2013, for child abuse. He promptly retained Jeffrey H. Garland to represent him in the Martin County case. Fort Pierce Child Abuse The discovery materials revealed a tragically familiar scenario. As a young man, Martin married, had two children and divorced. Martin agreed to leave...Read More

If you value your privacy, and if you wish to avoid being stopped at an inopportune time, then you should get rid of any license plate bracket which encroaches on any portion of the writing images on your license plate. Police have so many “reasons” to stop a vehicle, that you hardly need to give...Read More

Fluorophenylpiperazine. There is a problem with prosecuting this “designer drug”. Florida Statutes do not list the many alternative chemical formulae for this type of drug. If it is not prohibited, it cannot be prosecuted. Be sure to obtain the laboratory testing results and approved procedure before accepting any claim by prosecutors that the substance in...Read More

A 33 year-old Florida man was found with a bag of cocaine hidden between his toes while he was being booked into St. Lucie County Jail, after being arrested and charged with aggravated battery. The suspect, who claimed the drugs did not belong to him, was charged with possession of cocaine and with smuggling contraband...Read More

Those facing a felony prosecution for driving on a suspension or revocation need to be aware that DHSMV must prove mailing of notice of an administrative suspension/revocation to the last known address. Failure of the DHSMV records to prove this is a defense.Read More

Johnny Morris (not his real name) was arrested on 2/16/12, in Okeechobee County for possession of cocaine, possession of cannabis under 20 grams, possession of drug paraphernalia, and misdemeanor driving while license suspended (DWLS). Morris bonded out of jail. The State subsequently filed formal charges (which added a charge of evidence tampering), and provided discovery,...Read More

On 6/2/12, Jude Lawson (not his real name) was stopped at about 1:00 A.M. in Fort Pierce. The deputy claimed that Jude was playing loud music in his pickup truck in violation of Florida Statute 316.3045. The deputy discovered that Jude’s license was suspended for failing to pay child support. Judge was arrested for DWLS...Read More

The United States Department of Justice reached an agreement with the St. Lucie Medical Center in Port St. Lucie. This HCA hospital has agreed to pay over seven million dollars to settle Medicare fraud claims for improperly billed procedures, according to Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers on 7/6/13. This is yet another instance of an artificial...Read More

After U.S. Marshals discovered drugs, ammunition and a gun at a home, located on Havana Avenue in Fort Pierce. The federal agents were arresting a teenager with an outstanding warrant, a pair of men were arrested for drug possession charges. Police confiscated Ecstasy, Oxycodone, Zoloft, and marijuana, as well as ammunition and a .357 revolver,...Read More

Client’s car was stopped for a “loud music” violation of Section 316.3045. The client was initially represented by the public defender, who recommended that he plea “no contest” to DWLS and to a separate charge of resisting an officer without violence. The client soon learned that the withhold of adjudication for the DWLS would still...Read More

Our Country may have been founded on principles of personal freedom and liberty, but the enveloping police state is acting with all dispatch to suppress “limited government”. Your government, in the mad pursuit of the “war on drugs”, jailed a 78-year-old senior citizen for “doctor shopping” on the thinnest of pretexts. Mrs. Shipley (not her...Read More

In June, 2012, an FHP trooper was radar timing cars traveling west on Port St. Lucie Boulevard in the area of the Floresta Drive intersection.  The trooper was watching cars as they came down the west side of the bridge over the north fork of the St. Lucie River.  Drivers ordinarily have to brake on...Read More

Kent Ford (not his real name) had never been arrested.  Never been in trouble.  Nada.  Kent retired from up north to Port St. Lucie with his bride of many years.  Life was good.  Back during the great land boom, they bought an investment property in a gated community in St. Lucie West.  The hope for...Read More