Although restraining order is the more commonly used term, that is not the correct term. The correct term is “Injunction for Protection”. Refer Pinellas County website.

What is an Injunction for Protection?

An Injunction for Protection is a Civil Court Order (often referred to as a “restraining order” and herein referred to as “Injunction”) that places restrictions on an individual (referred to as the Respondent) who has allegedly committed acts or (in some cases) made threats of violence against another individual (referred to as the Petitioner). An Injunction is requested by the Petitioner who files a “Petition” with the Court asking for protection from the Respondent.

An Injunction may include provisions that: restrain the Respondent from further acts of violence; order the Respondent to leave a shared dwelling; prevent the Respondent from coming to your home, school or place of employment; and/or award temporary custody of minor children.

An Injunction should not be used as a tool to manipulate the Respondent or the Judicial System, gain access to property, or to settle issues of child custody or spousal support, but rather to protect you against a genuine and well-founded fear of continued violence or abuse.

Violence is defined by Florida Statute 784.046(1)(a) as “any assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking, aggravated stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment, or any criminal offense resulting in physical injury or death, by a person against another person.”

Violence does not include all offensive behavior. Trespassing, criminal mischief, threats, tampering with a witness and harassing phone calls are all criminal offenses which should be reported to law enforcement, but may not necessarily, alone, qualify for the issuance of an Injunction.

Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.criminallawyerclearwaterflorida.com
or call (727) 799-3550.

Do you associate with people that you suspect sometimes use drugs. Do you sometimes wonder if they are carrying drugs on their person when they ride in your car? Do you wonder what would happen if you are stopped for a routine traffic stop? Can you be charged for possession of drugs, even if you didn’t even know about them? The answer is yes.

But, more routinely it happens this way. The police stop a car, you are the passenger and drugs are found in the car and they are within your reach if you knew that they were there, so they might be in a center console or in a side pocket. They can charge you with joint possession because in Florida, you can possess something by having actual control or possession of it on your person or you can have constructive possession, which says that if you are in a place that has easy access to the contraband, you constructively possess it even though it is not actual possession.

Either possession counts the same under the law if you are convicted. But the police or the prosecutor has to prove that you knew that the drugs were there and that you knew that they were illegal. If it is not your car and even though you might be in a position to find it or grab it, it does not absolutely mean that you knew it was where it was, so that you would not necessarily be convicted of that joint constructive possession. I had a case one time where there was a car stopped with four people in it and the drugs were under the driver’s seat and my client was the passenger behind the driver, so they charged him with constructive possession and we argued to the jury that he was just getting a ride, it was not his car, he had no knowledge of it and there was no proof to suggest that he, in any way, had anything to do with the placing of the drugs there.

Being charged and being convicted are two separate things. So you can always get charged because that is the discretion or the whim of the police or the prosecutor but being convicted and being proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt gives you a chance.

How Are Home Searches Handled In Court?

Our constitution holds our right to privacy dearly. We should be secure in our homes, the police have to get over a much higher hurdle when trying to conduct a home search. Most times they need a warrant that is signed by a judge and is based upon probable cause that shows verification of the claims that are made in the police officer’s affidavit. The exceptions to the warrant requirement for a home basically fall into two categories. There are more but these are the ones that are common. If the police are in hot pursuit of an individual they believe committed a crime and that person is able to elude them and run into a home, the police see that, the police are not required to just stop at the doorway when they are in hot pursuit.

It is one example of an exception. Another typical one is if they are in the vicinity of someone’s home and they observe a crime being committed in their presence that can also give rise to an exception to the warrant requirement. If they are walking by someone’s house and the windows are open and they see them smoking crack or see someone strike someone like the domestic violence thing, they are not required to turn their heads away and ignore it and run to a judge and ask for a warrant, they can act on that immediately. That is another typical exception to the warrant requirement of going into the home.

Can A Visitor Be Charged If Drugs Are Found In Someone Else’s House?

Yes, but the visitor in the home like the passenger car has no standing to complain about the search. It is the homeowner, car owner or whoever is in charge of the car right to complain about the search. So, the passenger or the visitor can rely upon the homeowner’s right to challenge it but they do not have an independent right to challenge it because it is not their home. Let us assume the officer goes into someone’s home on a valid warrant and they find drugs in the bathroom. Well, potentially everybody in the house could be charged with joint constructive possession because they all have access and if it is open and obvious sitting out that inference can be made as opposed to finding drugs in someone’s personal bedroom that they only use in their closet or in their drawer that would not lend itself to a joint possession.

Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.criminallawyerclearwaterflorida.com
or call (727) 799-3550.