Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

In Florida : My Daughter pulled down the pants of another boy at school, exposing his genitals. We want to claim that "many of the kids in the school were doing it to one another and when my sdaughter did it to another kid who happen to have done it to my kid earlier in the same day" the police were called my the other boys parents and my daughter was arrested. Could my daughter have a valid defense to the battery charge against him that she had "constuctive/implied consent(consent to participate) from the victim to pull her pants down because they were all doing it to oneanother". Would this defense fly in Juvenile court in Dade county florida. The Battery stautue states - "without the consent of the victim". have you heard of case law in our favor? What are the cases sited?


Asked on 8/05/10, 9:23 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Leland Garvin Garvin Law Firm

Implied consent could be a workable defense and you could argue that the charge could be changed to disorderly conduct or even dismissed.

The argument would be that it is similar to a child agreeing to participate in a football game and then getting tackled.

As this is Juvenile court, the judge/state will have a fair amount of flexibility with the ultimate outcome of this case. My advice would be to hire an attorney as early as possible and try to nip this case in the bud. An attorney might be able to negotiate a change of charge, or even dismissal. prior to the state actually filing the formal charges.

Before going into private practice I worked as a juvenile prosecutor here in South Florida. Feel free to give me a ring or email if you would like to discuss your options further.

best of luck,

-Leland

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Answered on 8/11/10, 6:52 am


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