(772) 489-2200

With search warrant in hand, the Port St. Lucie police burst into a home and found 10 guns, 62 marijuana pipes and various drugs. The single male resident was arrested on the spot. He has been charged with with a slew of drug crimes including marijuana production, possession of over 20 grams of marijuana and...Read More

Tugboat Captain’s Coast Guard License Saved Via Motion to Correct Sentencing Error Tugboat Captain’s Coast Guard License Saved Via Motion to Correct Sentencing Error Blaine Masters (not his real name) was charged with felony DWLS. After paying for not one, but two other lawyers, he plead out to the felony and got “just” 120 days...Read More

An 81-year-old man was arrested and held on $750 bond at St. Lucie County Jail by Fort Pierce police after neighbors complained that he had discharged a pistol in public three times on the afternoon of July 7. The apparently intoxicated man was said to have used a black pistol to fire three shots while...Read More

The Importance of Obtaining the Best Possible Criminal Defense Three women are facing prostitution charges in St. Lucie County after being caught in a police sting operation. These and other criminal defendants will require a vigorous defense if they hope to have the charges dismissed or the penalties reduced. Such individuals need the assistance of...Read More

During the 24 hours encompassing July 5, 46 different people were charged with felony crimes in St. Lucie County. Breaking down the areas where these individuals live shows that most of them reside in either Port St. Lucie or Fort Pierce. After that, a smattering of individuals from places like Vero Beach, Stuart and even...Read More

Last weekend, a Vero Beach woman started an altercation that ultimately lead to her arrest. The woman’s landlord claimed that he was beaten by her because she thought that he stole her crack pipe. The arrest affidavit explains that the woman lost her crack pipe, so she assumed her landlord took it away from her....Read More

Three arrests were made in a residential neighborhood in Port St. Lucie after a drug sting following an investigation, according to the Port St. Lucie Police Department. A concerned citizen first reported the drug activity and reported a 29-year-old who was selling marijuana out of his home at 1400 block of SE Grapeland Ave. One...Read More

A recent triple arrest in Vero Beach proved just how much the drug game is still alive in the U.S. The authorities served up three arrest warrants in the area, and the people who were arrested are surely going to need help from a Vero Beach criminal attorney to assist in their defense. Cocaine is...Read More

A married police officer with three children who previously served with the Port St. Lucie Police Department has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of possession and distribution of child pornography along with coercion and enticement of a minor. Pursuant to the execution of a search warrant, hundreds of...Read More

Retired U.S. Coast Guard Commander Russell Miner (not his real name) retained Attorney Jeffrey H. Garland to “clean up” old and erroneous entries on the criminal history maintained by FDLE. A FDLE examiner advised that an arrest for possession of cannabis under 20 grams remained “active”, even though the date of arrest was 6/14/1974. The...Read More

Roscoe Riley (not his real name) was charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering in Okeechobee County. The information alleges a conspiracy to violate unspecified provisions of Chapter 893, dealing with controlled substances. Attorney Garland sought, without success, to dismiss the charge for failing to properly outline the scope and purpose of the conspiracy. The motion...Read More

Florida child abuse is extremely serious and can end up landing someone in jail for a very long time. A 32-year-old mother was just recently arrested for neglecting her child in Fort Pierce. She will need a Fort Pierce child neglect attorney very soon. The accusers stated that the woman had left her young child...Read More

A Port St. Lucie woman is facing several drug charges after being arrested at a home Thursday. Officers using a warrant seized cocaine and prescription drugs at the home. Now the 27-year-old woman is charged with a laundry list of offenses, including possession of cocaine, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, and sale...Read More

Josh Berringer (not his real name) was arrested on 3/6/16, at the Okeechobee Music Festival, for trafficking in LSD. His family immediately retained Okeechobee drug trafficking attorney Jeffrey Garland. Garland identified irregularities in the manner of the search and the processing of evidence. The supposed field testing of evidence did not match the charge. There...Read More

Child custody disputes commonly escalate into litigation and, occasionally, into arrests. Police can arrest a parent for “interfering” with custody under limited circumstances.  Mary Nance (not her real name) learned that police can be quick to arrest on “probable cause”. Nance was arrested for violating her husband’s custody rights on 3/5/16. She was given no...Read More

In the early morning hours of April 21, a 28-year-old Fort Pierce man was arrested after police stated that had been identified by a witness as the individual seen firing shots out of the sunroof on a white BMW while driving through Port St. Lucie. That individual, allegedly told Port St. Lucie police that he...Read More

Respect for law enforcement is diminished when an officer seeks to justify a stop for a reason shown to be false. Subsequent investigation proved that the stopped car had nothing but factory tint. Prosecutors, wisely, dropped charges on 1/20/16, rather than dispute the evidence from a defense expert concluding that the trooper’s “reason” for the...Read More

Gustof Nesmith (not his real name) was cited for driving without a valid license on 10/4/15. The charge was actually a “gift”, because Nesmith’s license was suspended on account of a long ago New Jersey DUI conviction. Nesmith had been jailed by St. Lucie County Judge Yacucci for the same offense about a year earlier....Read More

On March 29, 2016, a twenty-five-year-old man saw his ex-girlfriend riding in another man’s car in Fort Pierce, Florida. After signalling them to pull their car over, Miguel Gomez is alleged to have begun to chase them in his vehicle. Reportedly, Gomez rammed the back of their car three times, finally sending it into an...Read More

30-year-old Fort Pierce man has been released from St. Lucie County Jail on $184,500 bond on April 2, one day after being arrested on five drug-related charges, including three felonies. The latter charges stem from a subsequent search of his vehicle and home that reportedly discovered over three pounds of cocaine. The man was stopped...Read More

The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 52-year-old Port St. Lucie resident on additional charges of internet crimes related to child pornography on March 17, following his original arrest three days earlier. On March 14, Tracy James Justice had been arrested on 10 counts of possessing child pornography and five counts related to the...Read More

Police stopped a drug transaction dead in its tracks the other day in St. Lucie County. They ended up arresting two men who were transporting drugs in a KIA Soul vehicle. The driver’s name was Lawrence David Wilson, and he received a citation for driving on a suspended license. The 25-year-old culprit paid a bail...Read More

On the morning of February 26, a 22-year-old Port St. Lucie man was arrested by city police on prowling and loitering charges. The arrest subsequently led to him also being served warrants on three alleged crimes from 2015. Charles Reginal “CJ” Gibson was reportedly seen looking into cars in a restaurant parking lot in the...Read More

The musical festival scene offers opportunities for bands and artists to reach new audiences and for music lovers to take in some of the hottest sounds in the industry. The upcoming Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival will showcase more than 80 bands, DJs and artists during its three-day run from March 4th to 6th, 2016....Read More

On February 9, 2016, Port St. Lucie police arrested a male resident who allegedly sold Xanax and marijuana to an undercover narcotics agent. Per local media report, special investigators and SWAT team members discovered more than 10 grams of marijuana partially bagged for resale along with $166 cash, ammunition and a digital precision scale after...Read More

Fort Pierce man arrested with prescription and street drugs A 23-year-old Fort Pierce man, Martavious Leon King, was arrested just after midnight on February 2 for a series of drug-related offenses following a search of his car by officials from the St. Lucie County sheriff’s office. King, who was being held in the St. Lucie...Read More

On February 3rd, a police officer was on a routine patrol in Fort Pierce, Florida, when he came across the Lucky 7 Food Mart. It was here that he saw a man aggressively poking a woman in the chest near the store front. When the officer confronted the man, Roger Wayne Runyon, 68, he claimed...Read More

A man from Fort Pierce who was originally arrested due to a firearms offense now faces new charges. According to a press release by the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, 29 year old Altamonte Wilson is now also charged with 54 counts of child pornography. At this time, there are no statements available from Wilson...Read More

Recently, a woman was stopped in Stuart, Florida by a St. Lucie County deputy. She was driving a golf cart between the sidewalk and the roadway when the deputy stopped her and asked her how much she had to drink. She told the deputy she had “a lot” to drink. The deputy discovered that her...Read More

It is never a good feeling to see and hear the flashing lights and blaring horns of a police car indicating you had better come to a stop … and it can be far worse if you have been drinking and driving. Known as DUI, a driving under the influence charge in Florida, as in...Read More

During the execution of a police search warrant on the morning of December 11 by members of the St. Lucie County Special Investigation Unit, a pair of Port St. Lucie men were arrested at their home on a variety of drug-related charges. 24-year-old Taylor James Knott and 32-year-old Guillermo Ramos were both charged with possession...Read More

There have been an increasing number of arrests for contraband coming into jails. Many of these arrests are the direct result of improperly performed police “pat down” searches made at the time of arrest. The arrestee is taken to jail against their will. The arrestee is told they have a right to remain silent. The...Read More

A Fort Pierce man was arrested on July 12, 2012 on a series of charges related to an auto accident that resulted in the death of Vero Beach woman and left her husband suffering from serious injuries. That individual was charged with the following crimes in the February 6, 2012 incident that took place on...Read More

Two Port St. Lucie men were arrested by local police on October 13 on charges of both possession and distribution of child pornography after the police had received an online tip involving the two men who shared a home together near Southwest Port St. Lucie Boulevard on Southwest Dalton Circle. Graydon Andrew Knapp was arrested...Read More

A couple in Fort Pierce has been arrested after an investigator found their home in unsanitary conditions. According to the arrest affidavit, the home was filled with rotten food, trash and feces. Investigators also stated that there were gnats and flies all over the home. They stated that there was no edible food in the...Read More

A 23 year-old man named Admerson Cleber Eugenio Vicente has been charged with DUI manslaughter. He has also been charged with driving without a license. He crashed into another vehicle while he was driving in Broward County. The crashed killed two sisters, Alexis and Brittany Musumeci. Vicente was driving on the wrong side of the...Read More

A Port St. Lucie police officer who won Officer of the Year four years ago during his previous job with the Fort Pierce Police Department was arrested on September 22 in an investigation related to child pornography. Michael Harding, who had joined the Port Lucie Police Department in 2012, had been under investigation by undercover...Read More

Watch Out For The Angry Ex-Girlfriend Barney Mello (not his real name) probably moved the relationship along too fast. After just several months, he moved in with his new girlfriend, Lola Mulekick (not her real name). Barney maintained a superior level of income. His presence immediately advanced the financial security of Lola’s home, and the...Read More

Solomon Jean Pierre (not his real name) had a hard time getting to the United States from his native country of Haiti. Once here, Pierre was granted status. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued him an employment authorization card which allowed Pierre to obtain work and a Florida Driver License. Pierre took advantage of...Read More

St. Lucie Stripper Arrested for DUI A Palm Bay woman was incoherent as she claimed that she was a stripper and had not taken painkillers for more than 114 years. She also claimed that she could not afford being taken to jail but was arrested regardless. The 34 year old woman, was found driving erratically...Read More

An officer was struck by a police car on Wednesday, October 8 at approximately 6 p.m after the driver was operating the vehicle while intoxicated. Ryan Steven Moore, 48, was performing a K-9 training exercise in the parking lot of the Port St. Lucie Police Department when he struck the officer with the front of...Read More

Two Fort Pierce fathers charged with BUI and child abuse Two men are facing boating under the influence and child abuse charges after being arrested in Ft. Pierce. A charging document revealed that four children aboard a boat became concerned for their safety while on a boat trip with their fathers due to the amount...Read More

State Forced to Drop Trafficking in Cocaine and Oxycodone Charges Fletcher Bowdoin (not his real name) was arrested on 12/20/12 by the Fort Pierce Police Department. The police report states that Bowdoin was found hiding under a bed. The police claimed that 20 grams of “crack cookies” were found in the kitchen trash, together with...Read More

On 2/18/13, a Fort Pierce police officer arrested Carlos Montoya (not his real name) for allowing an unlicensed person to drive. Carlos is an “undocumented alien” who is trying to gain permanent resident status. A conviction for this charge – even with a “withhold of  adjudication” – would be potentially disastrous. Treasure Coast Lawyer Defeats...Read More