Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

Re: arrest and charges

You have raised an excellent point with your question. There are actually two issues:

1) Must the law enforcement officer/agency file a complaint, and;

2) What is the time period someone can be held without charges being filed by the State Attorney?

They are truly two different questions.

The first question is a matter of probable cause to believe a crime has occurred. This is determined at First Appearance (within 24 hours of arrest). Often, the judge will find PC, but the State has not filed formal charges. In other words, there IS an arrest report with specific charges and it may be filed with the Clerk of Court. The First Appearance judge isn't going to be taking evidence from live witnesses in fifty or more cases - this would take forever - so the First Appearance judge reviewed an Arrest Report with a Statement of Probable Cause

The second question involves just that - the State can hold someone in jail for a limited time before an Information of Indictment (the formal charging document) is filed with the Clerk of Court. The Rule of Criminal Procedure you are referencing provides the State a total of 40 days, not 33. A criminal defense attorney can filed a Motion for Release at 33 days, but that only ensures that the State wakes up and files formal charges. Therefore, I would wait it out if the potential charge was a major trafficking charge with a 5 million dollar bond, unless I thought I could 'charge bargain' the charge down by meeting with the prosecutor. NOTE: Although many circuit's will have State Attorney Office policies against charge bargaining, it still happens in most jurisdictions.

Finally, Rule 3.220 provides for Discovery in Florida criminal cases. This requires the State to make available the evidence they have against someone, with some exceptions (such as 'confidential informants'). Abuses in the legal system led to the creation of this unique aspect of Florida law.

We live in dangerous times. We live in a time when the government believes it can hold over 14,000 people in secret prisons without legal redress of grievances. This if fundamentally unfair, fundamentally wrong, and will only lead to fundamentalist extremism as people lose faith in our government of, and by, the people.

However, Florida is special because we have legal procedures that are actually superior to those a person would even have in federal court.

Warmest regards,

Stephen G. Cobb