Another promising University of Miami Hurricane football player was arrested last month - this time for DUI. The response by the UM athletic department again was immediate and a day later the freshman student was out of school. It is unclear whether this student left voluntarily or he was expelled. You can see the local coverage of the story here.
The 2014-2015 college academic year has just started for most colleges and universities. Here in Miami, students have been back to campus for about a week now and classes have just begun. This is a very busy time for Freshman and returning students alike. New and old friends are meeting up and enjoying themselves all around campus and town. As I warn every fall, students should be extra careful in these first few weeks of the semester when the police are out in full force patrolling for typical college student illegal activity like drugs use and underage drinking. Many campus [...]
The Florida Legislature is taking up the pervasive problem with these Mugshot Websites again and it looks like this time it may pass. Read about it here. I have been complaining about these Mugshot websites that obtain arrestees' booking photos, also known as mugshots, from the jails as soon as someone is arrested and publishing them on their websites, along with their names and charges. Not only is the a great source of embarrassment for those arrested, but also many times charges are dismissed or expunged and these Mugshot websites never correct their data. Worse yet, they will not remove [...]
I love Key West. They really know how to deal with a problem down there. They have something called "Spring Break Court." Key West, like most big Spring Break destinations, suffers from many arrests of college students for relatively minor crimes like underage drinking, open container violations, fake IDs, etc. The problem with the arrest of a college student on Spring Break vacation is that they are not locals and must return to their home, usually hundreds of miles away, at the end of the week before their criminal case can come to court to be resolved. Key West has [...]
The Florida First District Court of Appeals recently ruled that Florida public universities must permit firearms to be kept in an encasement inside a vehicle on campus. You can read the opinion here. Florida state, public colleges, like many universities around the country had rules against bringing weapons, including firearms anywhere onto campus. However, in Florida we have a statute that specifically addresses the right to keep a firearm in a vehicle on campus. Universities don't like any firearms on campus - zero tolerance. However, firearm carrier advocacy groups fought these campus bans and won! Now, at any of the [...]
The media firestorm this week has been blazing with news of every detail of Justin Bieber's DUI arrest in Miami (my own backyard) this week. But, what I haven't heard yet is why Justin Bieber and many other celebrities along with most of my clients don't know their legal rights when they come into contact with law enforcement or when they have been arrested. Learn them, know them and use them because this could make or break your criminal case. Basically, the rules are simple. Here we go. When a police officer asks you any questions you have the absolute [...]
College students on spring break from all over the country flock to downtown Miami for Ultra Music Festival. This year Ultra spans two consecutive weekends capturing most major colleges' spring break. This DJ loaded, dance music festival also brings many college student arrests to Miami. After just the first weekend media is reporting 84 arrests already. You can read the article here. You can bet the vast majority of those Ultra arrests are college students. Many arrests are for drugs, especially "Molly" or MDMA which is an amphetamine similar to ecstasy. In Florida possession of MDMA is a felony so [...]
For all the University of Miami students and parents out there a fairly new program is available which you should be aware. Its called ULEAD, which stands for University Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program. This is a joint venture of sorts between the University of Miami and the Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office which will allow students charged with certain crimes (right now just marijuana and paraphernalia possession and false ID cases) to completely avoid ever being arrested or formally charged in court with a crime. The benefits of this program are enumerable because the student's name will never be [...]
Times certainly have changed. I was surprised to learn that these days college students are buying and selling drugs - not to get high but to study more and get better grades. There is an epidemic in college campuses across the country where students are illegally purchasing "study drugs" like Adderall and Ritalin which are normally prescribed for ADA or ADHD in order to achieve better grades. It may begin as simply as a student with a legitimate prescription giving a pill or two to a friend during exam period. You can watch more on the issue here in a [...]
The legal term "Pretrial Diversion" is something every college student (or parent of a college student) who has been arrested for the first time should be made aware of. Pretrial Diversion has been around in the United States court system since the 1970's and approximately 45 states currently have legislation enabling these programs. Click here for a detailed report about the Pretrial Diversion practices across the country. What is Pretrial Diversion? Pretrial Diversion Programs are voluntary programs in which certain types of criminal defendants can participate. Their case is then removed out of the court litigation track and into a [...]
