Florida Criminal Lawyer Blog

Miami was hit with a double whammy last week -- multiple arrests in two separate investigations into alleged Medicare fraud. In the larger case, the Miami Herald said, 53 people in Miami, Detroit and Denver were indicted June 24 for conspiring to defraud Medicare. The alleged fraud ring included doctors, clinics and patients who were accused of billing the federal government for care not needed or not received. Later that week, on June 26, the Herald reported that eight Miamians were arrested by the FBI for a similar scam, involving home health care aides sent to “treat” people who said they were homebound. Authorities say the two schemes cost taxpayers $78 million.

The alleged Medicare fraud schemes used similar models. Health care businesses and health care providers would pay “patients” cash kickbacks to say they received expensive services such as in-home assistance for diabetics, HIV infusion therapy, medical equipment and physical therapy. The providers would then submit claims to Medicare for the phony care and pocket the eventual payments. In the larger case, the Herald also said providers used stolen Medicare and physician ID numbers to submit their claims. The problem is not limited to Miami, but according to the Herald, federal investigators focused on Miami because it has some of the highest Medicare costs in the nation, making it attractive to people willing to exploit Medicare’s “notoriously lax oversight.”

The articles also note that Medicare fraud is a concern for the Obama Administration, which is cracking down on fraud and waste in Medicare as part of its push for health care reform. At Balliro, Galasso, Leskovich & Seltzer, we read that to suggest that more arrests could be coming soon. While our Naples fraud criminal defense attorneys absolutely support efforts to find and eliminate fraud against the government, we are concerned, as always, that a politically motivated crackdown could catch up innocent health care providers -- and patients -- in its net. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and serious mistakes could be especially likely when investigators are rushed or under pressure to find fraud -- or seeking to build their own political popularity.

BGL&S defends people throughout South Florida who have been charged with all types of fraud crimes, including Medicare fraud. Medicare fraud is a federal crime carrying up to five years in prison, plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, for each false Medicare claim. Florida’s fraud laws can provide even greater penalties, depending on the circumstances. Penalties can add up very quickly for people facing multiple alleged false health care claims -- and those are just the criminal penalties. Doctors, nurses and other licensed health care professionals also face the devastating loss of their licenses and careers. If you’re facing these severe penalties for health care fraud, or believe you will be, you should call our Punta Gorda Medicare fraud criminal defense lawyers as soon as you can.

Founded by a group of former public defenders and prosecutors, BGL&S is committed to providing a complete and thorough defense to every case against our clients, no matter how big. If appropriate in your case, our Fort Lauderdale fraud criminal defense attorneys can help you defend your career and license as well as your criminal charges, or recommend someone who can. Unlike some South Florida criminal defense law firms, we aren’t afraid of going to trial to protect our clients’ rights, if appropriate -- we have taken hundreds of cases to trial. And because we know criminal charges can happen anytime, that’s when we’re available -- 24 hours a day and seven days a week. To learn more at a free, confidential consultation, please contact our West Palm Beach health care fraud criminal defense attorneys via email or call toll-free from anywhere within Florida at 1-866-ARRESTED.

A federal appeals court said last week that written sexual fantasies and cartoon images involving children in sexual situations is enough to trigger a child pornography conviction, Wired magazine’s Threat Level blog reported June 17. The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a new trial to a man who was convicted of child pornography possession for both of those things, as well as for owning actual child pornography. Dwight Whorley had asked for a new trial on the counts related to the fictional email and the cartoons. He is serving a 20-year prison sentence stemming from the 2006 conviction.

The cartoon images are a kind of Japanese animation called hentai, which is sexually explicit. Whorley was convicted for those images under a federal law called the PROTECT Act, which prohibits obscene images that “appear[] to be” minors engaging in sexual conduct. For the email, in which Whorley wrote down his sexual fantasies about children and sent them to other adults, he was charged with sending obscene writing over state borders. Ten judges on the Fourth Circuit’s panel agreed that those convictions should stand. That ends the case at the appeals level; Whorley’s last option is to ask the Supreme Court to hear his case.

The lone holdout, George W. Bush appointee Judge Roger Gregory, dissented at length on both counts. The goal of laws against child pornography is to prevent the exploitation of children, he said -- so obscenity laws shouldn’t apply to the cartoon images. But he saved stronger words for the email conviction, which he said was inappropriate even though the email was considered obscene. It victimized no children, Gregory wrote, and was not part of a commercial transaction, which would make it part of interstate commerce. Thus, he wrote, the government had no interest in regulating Whorley’s speech “beyond the perceived desirability of censoring these kinds of thoughts.” In essence, he argued, the majority’s decision allowed the government to police citizens’ thoughts.

As Gregory wrote, the Supreme Court has already decided that thoughts and ideas -- even unpleasant or unpopular ones -- are protected under the First Amendment. Our Naples cybercrime criminal defense attorneys want to make it clear that we don’t believe Whorley should go free; he was convicted of possessing undisputed child pornography, after all. But we also agree with Gregory that the price of free speech is occasionally tolerating private thoughts we find objectionable. Whorley did not harm children with his email or his cartoons, and harm to children is the basis the Supreme Court stated for making child pornography illegal. If a law cannot meet that threshold, precedent from our highest court says it violates the Constitution.

Balliro, Galasso, Leskovich & Seltzer defends clients accused of all types of cybercrimes, including crimes involving child pornography. Our West Palm Beach cybercrime criminal defense lawyers are not afraid to take on clients accused of unpopular or controversial behavior -- all the way to trial, if necessary. Our team of experienced former public defenders and prosecutors includes partner David Seltzer, who served in the Cyber Crime unit of the Miami-Dade state’s attorney’s office and understands how prosecutors put together Internet crime cases. Our Punta Gorda cybercrime defense lawyers will use computer forensic experts and others whenever appropriate to give our clients the best and most complete possible defense.

If you or a loved one is accused of a serious online crime, you should call BGL&S as soon as possible for a free, confidential consultation. To reach us -- 24 hours a day and seven days a week -- you can contact us online or call 1-866-ARRESTED toll-free from anywhere in Florida.

Police investigators are looking into the fatal shooting of a tourist from Virginia by Miami Beach police over the weekend, the Miami Herald reported June 15. Family members of 29-year-old Husien Shehada of Woodbridge, Virginia, said officers mistook Shehada for a suspect when they shot him at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, right after he’d left a club. His brother, Samer Shehada, was arrested for battery in the same incident. Miami Beach police declined to comment, saying the incident was being investigated by its internal affairs unit.

According to the Herald, police received a call about an armed man walking near the intersection of Washington and 15th Streets. When they went to investigate, they spotted Husien Shehada in the area. It’s unclear what happened next, but after a confrontation, Husien Shehada had been shot. He later died in a hospital trauma center. His brother Samer Shehada, a 31-year-old engineer, was charged with battery for unspecified actions. Their cousin, Najwa Ghannam, wrote to the Miami Herald to say that Husien Shehada was unarmed and “didn’t stand a chance” against officers.

As Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorneys, we understand that police officers have a tough job to do, especially in an area where alcohol and drugs can make suspects’ behavior erratic. And of course, we don’t have very many facts from this article. However, the facts we do have make us wonder how many questions the police asked before they opened fire. If Shehada was really unarmed, as his cousin said, it’s hard to see what might have made the officers feel threatened. As for the battery charge against Samer Shehada, it could easily stem from attempts to protect his younger brother. Remember, Florida law defines battery as any intentional, unwanted touching, which means something as simple as throwing an arm between the officer and his brother could have led to the charge.

Our Fort Myers criminal defense lawyers also noticed that the Shehadas and their cousin all have names that suggest that they are Muslims, and possibly (though not necessarily) of Middle Eastern descent. We cannot help but wonder how that might have factored into the case. Racism and prejudice are still out there, and it’s possible that they affected the police officers’ judgment in this situation. They could also have affected the Shehadas, if too many bad experiences made them suspicious of the officers’ motives for stopping them. Either one could have helped escalate this apparent misunderstanding into a tragedy.

The South Florida criminal defense law firm of Balliro, Galasso, Leskovich & Seltzer represents people facing serious criminal charges like these. Assault and battery are considered violent and serious crimes, especially against a police officer -- but BGL&S will work to ensure that our clients get the fairest treatment and trial possible. Our Naples assault and battery criminal defense lawyers examine each new case carefully to find mistakes, weak spots and civil rights violations that can get the case dismissed or the charges substantially reduced. If appropriate, we can also negotiate a plea deal with penalties that better fit the situation. However, our West Palm Beach assault and battery defense attorneys have taken hundreds of cases to trial and are not afraid to do it again, if necessary to protect our clients’ rights.

If you or someone you love is facing criminal charges in South Florida, BGL&S can help right away. For a free, confidential consultation, call us toll-free at 1-866-ARRESTED from anywhere within Florida, any time of the day or night, or contact our firm online.

A recent article in the Miami Herald underscores a serious problem for Florida drivers and South Florida traffic ticket lawyers like us: Tickets for failing to pay SunPass are clogging up traffic courts. According to the June 6 story, a change in state law means that people with SunPass tickets must now appear in traffic court if they want to avoid having points assessed on their licenses for paying the ticket. Not surprisingly, this has driven up demand for court dates in traffic court, where authorities say the number of SunPass ticket cases has doubled since the change in the law.

Before July of 2007, people could pay SunPass tickets with the clerk of court and receive a “withhold of adjudication” instead of a guilty verdict. Now, paying the ticket means an automatic guilty plea. That matters because pleading guilty to any traffic offense in Florida puts points on your driver’s license -- three, in the case of SunPass tickets. That means just four three-point SunPass toll tickets within a year can trigger an automatic driver’s license suspension. Drivers who don’t happen to get the suspension notice in the mail can be charged with driving on a suspended license, leading to jail time and further legal trouble. Even when points don’t trigger a suspension, they drive up auto insurance rates and make it more likely that

To avoid these drastic outcomes for failing to pay a $1 toll, drivers must contest the ticket in traffic court and either win (unlikely) or reach a settlement with authorities (common). Cases involving SunPass tickets accounted for just under 30% of all traffic cases in 2008, requiring special sessions and triggering complaints from the traffic courts.

Even authorities at the Turnpike acknowledge that this is a bad use of the traffic courts’ time. As Sarasota traffic ticket defense attorneys, we agree. Traffic court is typically reserved for extreme cases -- people who are accused of potentially dangerous violations like speeding, or those with so many non-criminal traffic citations that they face criminal penalties. Those aren’t categories that most people with SunPass toll tickets fall into. Appearing in court is a bad use of their time and the court’s.

Balliro, Galasso, Leskovich & Seltzer represents Florida drivers who are forced to go to court over SunPass tickets and other traffic citations. Our Fort Myers traffic citation defense lawyers can contest a ticket that you believe was written in error -- or, if you’d rather plead guilty, negotiate for a fair settlement that doesn’t hurt your ability to work and take care of your family. In many cases, we can appear in court for you, meaning you don’t need to take time away from work or school. And because we know legal trouble happens at all times of day -- not just from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday -- we are available to clients and potential clients anytime you need us. To learn more at a free, confidential consultation, you can contact us online or call toll-free from anywhere within Florida at 1-866-ARRESTED.

Former New York Giants football player Plaxico Burress successfully contested four traffic tickets from Broward County, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported June 1. Burress was pulled over March 1 and issued tickets for speeding, improper lane changes, overly tinted windows and improper display of his tags. Burress and his Fort Lauderdale traffic tickets defense attorney contested all four tickets because he was not given information on paying or fighting them, as required by Florida state law. Neither Burress nor the sheriff’s deputy testified at the hearing.

As this case shows, you don’t necessarily have to plead guilty to a traffic violation just because you get a ticket. Law enforcement officers are human and make mistakes at work just like the rest of us, and sometimes, those mistakes can get your ticket dismissed. Furthermore, pleading guilty -- which you do automatically whenever you pay the ticket -- can have consequences that affect your driving record and your life. Because paying a ticket adds points to your license, people who pay easily contested tickets unnecessarily sign up for a license suspension, which can lead to yet more legal trouble when they don’t realize they’re driving on a suspended license. At Balliro, Galasso, Leskovich & Seltzer, our Miami traffic ticket defense lawyers protect our clients from unreasonably harsh penalties for minor traffic infractions like speeding.

Burress faces more legal trouble, most notably for a firearms violation. The former Giants wide receiver carried a handgun in the waistband of his sweatpants into a Manhattan nightclub, where the gun began to slip down into his pants. In catching it, he accidentally pulled the trigger and shot himself in the right thigh. The wound was not serious, but he had no concealed weapons permit for the state of New York, and only an expired one from Florida. He was charged with unlawfully carrying a handgun and suspended for the rest of the season. Reports say Burress, who has a home in Lighthouse Point, would be interested in joining the Miami Dolphins if he’s acquitted, but is in talks with other teams.

As Fort Myers firearms violations defense lawyers, we wish Burress luck with his firearms case as well. Carrying a concealed weapon is a victimless crime in itself, and it infringes on citizens’ Second Amendment rights. In fact, in this case, the only victim is Plaxico Burress himself, who suffered a gunshot wound and professional consequences for his mistake. BGL&S is proud to represent people accused of firearms violations in South Florida, including concealed weapons violations, felon in possession charges and civil matters before state and federal regulatory agencies. Several of our Sarasota weapons charges defense attorneys are hunters, collectors and marksmen, so we understand the bureaucratic hassles our clients face to exercise their legal rights.

BGL&S represents Floridians accused of all types of crimes, from traffic tickets to serious, violent crimes. Our South Florida criminal defense attorneys don’t believe in the automatic plea deals that some other firms strike. We have taken hundreds of cases to trial and we are more than happy to do the same for our clients, when justice demands it. And because we know criminal charges come at all times of day and night, we make ourselves available to clients and potential clients anytime -- 24 hours a day and seven days a week. If you or a loved one is accused of a crime and you need help, contact BGL&S online as soon as possible for a free, confidential consultation or call 1-866-ARRESTED toll-free.