Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida
fire extinguisher
My daughter, 13 years of age, was talking to her friends at school. One friend mentioned something about a fire extinguisher that had fallen of a wall and hit so and so in the foot...my daughter reached over and touched the handle of the fire extinguisher saying, ''oooo, it's gonna get you.'' teasing her friend. Unexpectedly, the fire extinguisher went off because there was no safety pin in it. 18 kids were in the area and got sick from the dust. She was arrested for felony grand theft...threatened with 18 counts of aggravated battery. I was called by the school principle 1 hour a 15 minutes after the incident, told she was read her miranda rights and was being processed at the jail. The arresting officer told me it's against the law to touch a fire extinguisher. No one asked what happened, they asked her why she did it. She said she didn't mean to do it, it was an accident. I do have an attorny trying to reduce the charges or possibly have them dropped. My question is, it is against the law to touch one, and is it all her fault or should the school be partially to blame for not haveing a safety pin in the extinguisher. She's been kicked out of school and has to attend a night school now. This happened at a middle school.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: fire extinguisher
If you have retained an attorney to handle the situation, I would advise that you speak to him or her instead of asking other attorneys what to do about the situation. Good luck
Bradford
Re: fire extinguisher
I would recommend you nor you daughter talk to anyone but a lawyer.In my experience,in this kind of fact pattern the authorities are looking for someone to blame-your daughter-if you want to e-mail me how to contact you today or you can call my office tomorrow.Do not have your daughter talk to anyone but an attorney about this -(as a parent they could force you to tell the police,etc what she told you-good luck -
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