Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

Re: Charges being changed

Prosecutors have the discretion to change any charge at anytime within the time limits imposed by the statue of limitations and the speedy trial rule. When a police officer makes an arrest for one charge a prosecutor who is responsible for filing and prosecuting the criminal case may believe that the evidence does not support the charge lodged by the arresting police officer. Prosecutors have s the discretion to add charges, reduce charges, eliminate charges or drop an entire case.

By way of example, a police office may arrest someone for first degree murder, a charge which requires the element of premeditation, but a prosecutor reviewing the case to decide what charge or charges are appropriate to file may decide that there is insufficient evidence of premeditation and therefore file the reduced charge of second degree murder. Obviously, the reduction of the charge in this example would also affect the amount of the bond.

It is difficult to be more precise here about the particular case you may have encountered without additional information, but this gives you a general idea about the wide latitude that prosecutors have when deciding what charges to file.